Thousands of Gbagbo’s supporters took to the streets to vent their anger on the peace deal

ABIDJAN, January 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Although Ivory Coast’s main political parties and rebel groups reached unanimous agreement on Saturday, January 29, on a peace plan aimed at ending a devastating four-month civil war, the long-awaited French-brokered deal is teetering on the verge of collapse.

Ivory Coast’s armed forces refused point-blank to accept rebels in a unity government under the peace accord while the main rebel group in the four-month war Tuesday, January 38, urged government forces Tuesday to respect the deal, Agence France-Presse reported Wednesday, January 29.

The army said it would resist living side by side with rebels in barracks and would keep up its arms despite the pact, creating new seismic waves in the world's leading cocoa producing country. 

“The rebels have got to stop humiliating us,” AFP quoted a senior Ivorian officer. 

Seeking U.S. backing against the French-mediated peace accord, Thousands of pro-government youths have rioted for the fourth consecutive day in the key commercial city of Abidjan, accusing France of imposing an agreement on its former colony.

Converging outside the U.S. embassy in Abidjan, youths waved placards reading: “Like Judas, France has betrayed Ivory Coast,” “Down with France, long live the U.S.” and “No more French, from now on we speak English.”

In Agboville, some 80 kilometers north of Abidjan, the protests degenerated into clashes with the northern Muslims, viewed by many in the south as backing the insurgents, leaving eight people killed and 30 others injured.

For its part, the leading Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI) rebel group urged government forces to disarm and “distance themselves from the new adventure.”

The rebel asked the troops to ally “with the government of national reconciliation charged with restructuring the national armed forces.”

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan urged Ivorians to support the accord between government and rebels and raised the possibility of sending observers.

Fearing the wrath of the former colonial ruler France, President Laurent Gbagbo On Sunday, January 26, urged calm and compromise, saying that since he "did not win the war," he had been obliged to follow an alternative route, to talk and agree to concessions, triggering mass demonstrations led by his supporters.

Gbagbo, however, said he would not step down in the face the growing unrest over the peace deal signed in France last week, warning the country would descend into civil war.

“The day when I am in an untenable situation or forced to betray you, I will tell you that I am no longer president. But we are not there, so there is no cause for worry. As long as my signature is of some value, I am at the helm and you can reassure yourselves,” Gbagbo tried to calm disgruntled protesters.

Peace Deal is “Null and Void”

I ask all Ivorians to stay calm and go back home and wait for me to come and speak to them: Gbagbo

For his part, Ivory Coast’s Interior Minister Paul Yao N’dre said on Tuesday, January 28, that the French-brokered accord is “null and void.”  

“This accord in light of what has happened is null and void. This accord says that the prime minister shares power with the president. That is unacceptable,” AFP quoted him as saying.

“This regime does not share power between the democratically elected president and a prime minister named overseas,” he added.

The Ivorian minister scoffed at the idea of rebels in the government ranks.

“All you have to do is fire off a few rounds to get invited into the government and to destabilize the whole of the sub-region,” Yao N’dre said.

 The deal has set the armed forces against the embattled head of state, as it allocates the defence and interior portfolios to rebels who launched the war.

It also curtails Gbagbo’s powers by setting up a national unity government headed by a “non-partisan” prime minister.