Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo on Friday agreed to ground helicopter gunships and expel mercenaries imported to fight rebels battling his government, telling French radio that he was ready for ”total ceasefire”.
The decision followed talks with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, who arrived on Friday in war-torn Ivory Coast to seek a new formula to end the worsening crisis in France’s former colony.
Gbagbo told reporters on the steps of his residency that the helicopter gunships would be grounded immediately and that mercenaries would leave on Saturday.
He told France Info radio that he supported a ceasefire ”on all fronts”.
A helicopter gunship attack on a rebel village earlier this week killed 12 people, threatening a fragile ceasefire.
The three rebel groups now in the country have protested against the recruitment of mercenaries who had been flying the helicopter gunships. The departure of the mercenaries would further weaken Ivorian government troops, who performed poorly against the rebels.
De Villepin, who held talks with Gbagbo, said that the presence of the mercenaries was not helpful to peace talks. On French radio, he praised Gbagbo’s concessions.
The major concessions by Gbagbo put a lot of pressure on the main rebel group, the Patriotic Front of Ivory Coast (MPCI), to make concessions as well. De Villepin plans to fly on Saturday to the MPCI stronghold of Bouake.
An angry pro-government crowd had earlier met the top French diplomat, who was trapped after the talks and was only freed after Gbagbo personally intervened.
People in the crowd were angry because they believed de Villepin was trying to get Gbagbo to resign. France has proposed roundtable peace talks beginning on January 15 in Paris. Earlier, De Villepin had said that the situation in the Ivory Coast following the helicopter attack was in ”open crisis”.
”It is a situation in open crisis with a double risk: aggravating the internal situation and destabilising the entire region,” de Villepin told le Parisien.
”In the north, we are witnessing ceasefire violations; in the west, battles. At the same time, threats to human rights are multiplying.”
Some 2 500 French troops are currently deployed in Ivory Coast to maintain a fragile ceasefire between troops loyal to Gbagbo and the rebel groups. The ceasefire was seriously threatened by Wednesday’s helicopter attack on the rebel-held fishing village of Menakro, in which 12 civilians died and several more were wounded.
The MPCI threatened on Thursday to respond with an all-out offensive, while the French government condemned the helicopter attack and demanded an explanation from the government.
A new rebel group opened a new front in the war when they attacked a village called Neka in the southwest, but the government blamed the attack on Liberians. The Liberian government has denied it.
Fighting broke out in the West African country on September 19 when some 750 soldiers mutinied over plans to demobilise them. ‒ Sapa-DPA