French soldiers in Ivory Coast have come under rebel attack near Bangolo, in the west of the country, a representative for the French forces deployed in the former west African colony said on Saturday.
”At the end of Friday afternoon, French soldiers were attacked north of Bangolo and they returned fire, there were no casualties on our side,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Ange-Antoine Leccia.
Leccia said the French troops had ”probably” been attacked by a second rebel group that emerged this week in Ivory Coast, and captured the western towns of Man and Danane on Thursday.
He said the new group of fighters, who call themselves the Movement for Justice and Peace, on Saturday morning also clashed with government troops at Toulepleu, some 90 kilometres south of Danane.
A member of the gendarmerie at Toulepleu told AFP by telephone that the town had been surrounded by ”attackers”.
The Ivory Coast government is already battling another rebel group, the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI), that took up arms on September 19 and now control the northern half of the country.
The army and the MPCI signed a ceasefire on October 17, but the truce was shattered on Thursday when they clashed anew in the western Daloa-Vavoua region, some 130 kilometres east of Man.
Leccia said the French force, which was mandated to monitor the ceasefire, was ”stepping up our patrols in the west to evaluate the security situation of French and other foreign nationals.”
France has some 20 000 nationals living in Ivory Coast. – Sapa-AFP