Ivory Coast rebels on Monday called off ceasefire talks and demanded the resignation of President Laurent Gbagbo, who responded by vowing to end their uprising within the week.
Meanwhile witnesses said the army and rebels waged a new battle with heavy weapons near Daloa, the country’s third-largest city and gateway to the western cocoa-producing region. The rebels, who captured the town on Sunday, were still in control, a local official said.
Rebel leader Sherif Usman told a press conference in their stronghold of Bouake that he had received reports saying 500 Angolan soldiers had arrived in Abidjan. ”The MPCI (Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement) is suspending all participation in any mediation so long as Angolan troops called by Mr Gbagbo remain on our country’s soil,” he said.
”Gbagbo is not legitimate. We demand his immediate and unconditional resignation,” Usman said. The rebels’ representative, Master Sergeant Tuho Fozie, said ”deploying Angolan soldiers to kill Ivorians is unacceptable.”
Gbagbo later told state television that he would end the uprising this week.
”I say to the people in Bouake that this week it will end, either by signing on to peace or by waging war. But we will not wait past the end of this week,” Gbagbo said. Military officials said that two Angolan armored vehicles arrived on Sunday morning at Abidjan’s air base, and aviation sources said Angola’s state airline TAAG flew a plane that could carry 120 people into Abidjan late on Monday.
The military sources said the armored vehicles would be manned by Angolan troops, and that Luanda could well send a substantial number of troops to Ivory Coast, along with more equipment.
One of the two vehicles, Soviet-model BMP1 armored transports, broke down on Monday near downtown Abidjan. The vehicle was left on the side of the road, where an AFP photographer saw an Ivorian firetruck pull up next to it, apparently in case a fire broke out. Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio had raised expectations that a ceasefire could be near, telling reporters on Sunday that he and the rebels ”have effectively reached agreement, verbal for the moment.”
But even as the rebels were meeting with Gadio on Saturday and Sunday, they advanced farther south and captured Daloa, a key gateway to the cocoa-growing region. The sound of heavy weapons firing to the south of Daloa could still be heard late on Monday, but no loyalist troops were seen in the town of 200 000 people, one resident said.
State television said late on Monday that government forces had ”liberated” Daloa.
Rebels entered Daloa on Sunday without much resistance from government forces, who fled before their arrival. Daloa is at a strategic crossroads in the cocoa-producing region.
Ivory Coast grows 40% of the world cocoa crop, and fears that the imminent harvest will be disrupted have pushed prices to touch 17-year highs. The uprising has come just as cocoa farmers begin their harvest season.
In the western port of San Pedro, banks had closed indefinitely over fears of a rebel attack. Trade was continuing as normal for the moment, but shipping companies warned they could continue only for a few days unless the banks reopened. Meanwhile, the Abidjan Port Authority, the largest port in Ivory Coast and one of the most important in west Africa, was barred from unloading containers, officials said on Monday.
The ban on unloading containers came midday on Sunday at the request of Ivory Coast’s paramilitary gendarmes, and covers everything being imported, shipping companies said. ”In one or two days, the port will be jammed,” said one of the largest shipping operators in Abidjan. Goods being exported can be shipped out freely, they said. Senegal had hoped to revive a ceasefire proposed by the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which Gbagbo rejected earlier this month. The Ivorian leader insisted the rebels disarm before opening negotiations. ”I feel betrayed. For two years, everything possible that could be done to ensure that such events did not happen again was done. This coup d’etat is unjustifiable,” Gbagbo told the French newspaper Le Monde in an interview.
Gbagbo took personal control of the army on Saturday by firing defence minister Moise Lida Kouassi and appointing him presidency minister. He left the defence portfolio open and gave a minister attached to the presidency responsibility for defence and civil protection, essentially leaving the president in control of defense issues. The mutineers and former soldiers staged the uprising on September 19, quickly gaining control of the Muslim-dominated north and center of Ivory Coast. – Sapa-AFP