New fighting broke out between government forces and rebels in the west of Ivory Coast on Saturday, only hours after a peace agreement had been signed in the main city of Abidjan, officials on both sides said.
Guillaume Gbatto, a spokesperson for the rebel Popular Movement of Ivory Coast’s Far West (MPIGO), which has operated near the border with Liberia, said that pro-government forces had launched an attack during the morning in the western region of Danane.
He charged that the attacking forces were seeking to retake positions from the rebels in the final hours before a ceasefire comes into force at midnight under the just-signed peace agreement.
A spokesperson for the Ivory Coast armed forces, Lieutenant-Colonel N’Goran Aka, confirmed that fighting was under way in the region of Zouan-Houmien, some 20 kilometres south of Danane.
He blamed the rebels for initiating the fighting however, saying that they ”do not seem to feel concerned by the ceasefire”.
Earlier in the day the armed forces and the main rebel movements in the west African country, including MPIGO, signed a total ceasefire accord to end their seven-and-a-half-month-old civil war.
Ivory Coast’s new government of national unity, which includes ministers from the rebel groups, issued a statement on Friday saying the armed forces and the rebels had ”agreed to a total cessation of hostilities and an integral ceasefire”.
The ceasefire pact covers the whole of the once rich country, including the west, where neighbouring Liberia has been accused backing the rebels against the former government of President Laurent Gbagbo, a source close to the Ivorian presidency said on Friday.
It also contains a clause that provides for the disarmament of mercenaries and armed groups operating on both sides, the source said.
The signature of the ceasefire agreement could pave the way for troops from France, Ivory Coast’s former colonial ruler, to deploy 900 peacekeeping soldiers in the troubled west of the country, a west African military source said on Thursday. ‒ Sapa-AFP