Automatic-weapon fire and grenade launchers resounded throughout a major northern Côte d’Ivoire city on Sunday evening, in what a military source said was an outbreak of fighting between rival rebel groups.
A Western military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said fighting broke out in rebel-held Korhogo on Sunday evening.
”It seems there are two rebel factions who have been fighting each other over the last few hours,” said the official, without giving further details.
The United Nations mission in Côte d’Ivoire confirmed that there had been fighting in Korhogo, but gave no details.
”We confirm that there has indeed been shooting in Korhogo,” said UN spokesperson Philippe Mathieu. ”I cannot tell you by whom or why.”
”There has been shooting and gunfire everywhere. Everybody has gone back to their houses,” said a resident of Korhogo. The resident, who did not wish to be identified, said rebel soldiers drove through her neighbourhood telling everyone to stay indoors.
Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest cocoa producer and one of West Africa’s economic hubs, remains split into rebel-held north and loyalist south since a September 2002 coup attempt launched the country into war.
Although major fighting in Côte d’Ivoire stopped last year, tensions never eased.
About 4 000 troops from France, the former colonial ruler, still patrol the central buffer zone with a UN force due to grow to 6 240 strong. – Sapa-AP