THE government of the Comoro islands, established after a military putsch last April, said on Friday that a Christmas Eve coup in Cte d’Ivoire may have averted civil war in the west African country. “Coups d’etat, though they may be condemned, can in certain situations avert disasters and prevent populations facing situations of anarchy and insecurity,” Foreign Minister Souef Mohamed el-Amine said in a statement. “The situation in Cote d’Ivoire was stalled; the possibility of a civil war could not have been excluded,” Mohamed el-Amine said. He called on the Ivorian junta to hold elections as soon as possible.