Abidjan braced on Tuesday for more violence after a military air strike that breached the ceasefire zone dividing Côte d’Ivoire in retaliation for an attack against a military post in the country’s centre.
Police officers mounted foot patrols and erected barricades to dissuade protesters from gathering, as they did on Monday, outside the French embassy in the Plateau business district.
France is the former colonial power in the West African country, helped broker a peace pact early last year in a civil war that had divided Côte d’Ivoire, and has troops among the peacekeepers patrolling ceasefire lines.
The Ivorian government had ”most firmly” condemned the protest violence, calling it a ”serious” violation of the Vienna Convention, which prohibits the siege of diplomatic missions and their personnel.
But appeals for calm seemed to have little impact on firebrand supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo, who warned of further protests on Tuesday outside the French mission and built a barrier near the French military headquarters — popular targets for the partisan vitriol towards Côte d’Ivoire’s former colonial power.
The neighbouring United States embassy closed its doors on Tuesday to avoid being drawn into the violence, the latest escalation in tensions that have pummeled the former regional powerhouse since September 2002, when rebels failed to oust Gbagbo in a coup that boiled over into civil war.
Ivorian military spokesperson Colonel Jules Yao Yao said that early on Monday morning a ”renegade armed group” attacked a military post in the farming town of Gohitafla, one of several installations operated by the French and Ivorian military tucked into the confidence zone cutting 400km across the country of 17-million.
French military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Philippe de Cussac said two French soldiers suffered minor injuries. About 4 000 French troops have been in Côte d’Ivoire since last year helping to steer the country back towards reconciliation ahead of elections set for October 2005.
Yao Yao spoke of casualties on all sides: five Ivorian troops were killed and four injured, while 15 assailants and two civilians also died. Another 15 assailants, who had broken into the camp to raid its weapons cache, were arrested.
Rebel military commander Colonel Soumaila Bakayoko blamed followers of coup-plotter Ibrahim Coulibaly, currently on probation in France for a 2003 charge of attempting to destabiliae Côte d’Ivoire, for the early-morning ambush.
To the Ivorian military, however, there was no distinction; a convoy carrying rebel military leaders was hit by Mi-24 helicopter strikes on Monday afternoon, leaving 12 with minor injuries.
Among the passengers returning to the rebel stronghold of Bouake from Konahiri — where they had gone to restore calm following the Gohitafla attack — was Sergeant Cherif Ousmane, a senior rebel military commander and leader of the 2002 rebellion.
Ousmane was not wounded, Bakayoko said.
Yao Yao confirmed the air strike into the rebel-held north against what he said were ”five combat vehicles”.
Gbagbo has been in the US since Monday on a private trip that local media suggested would include visits with American business leaders and political officials.
Prior to his departure he announced he will call early elections and vowed that on his return, ”we are going to take care of [the rebels]”. — Sapa-AFP