A French defence ministry spokesperson on Sunday denied claims that French troops had killed around 30 Ivorians and wounded 100 others in clashes over the last 24 hours. Ivorian parliament speaker Mamadou Coulibaly had earlier announced the death toll on French public radio.
Thousands of demonstrators, who had trooped towards Abidjan’s international airport, prompted warning shots from French helicopters.
The warning shots came in a bid to dissuade tens of thousands of demonstrators from heading for the airport, which has been controlled by French forces since Saturday afternoon following the killing of nine French soldiers.
Faced with an immense human tide, two choppers flying with no lights, used 20mm cannon near the Houphouet-Boigny and Charles de Gaulle bridges on the lagoon which link the working-class and business districts with the airport.
At about 4am (4am GMT) the dispersing demonstrators grabbed the chance to ransack homes of Europeans in the Bietry district near the port of Côte d’Ivoire’s main city, with several inhabitants cowering on their roofs.
French forces had wiped out Côte d’Ivoire’s military aircraft on Saturday in retaliation for the killing of nine soldiers stationed here, as anti-French feeling reached boiling point in the west African former French colony.
Côte d’Ivoire warplanes had earlier executed a devastating raid on a French army camp killing the nine men plus a United States national and wounding 23 others.
French President Jacques Chirac thereupon ordered the destruction of all Côte d’Ivoire planes involved in ceasefire violations in the country, divided since a failed coup two years ago.
The French blew up two warplanes on the ground and later destroyed at least three army helicopters by later on Saturday, a French army spokesperson said.
Resentment against France boiled up in Abidjan, where youths chanting anti-French slogans looted and torched four French schools.
Thousands of young supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo marched on Abidjan airport, where a company of French infantry was stationed.
An hour-long clash had earlier occurred at the airport between French and Ivorian troops.
Ivorian forces closed the airport on Saturday afternoon and evacuated staff, sealing off the perimeter and closing it to air traffic, airport sources said.
France has had troops stationed in Côte d’Ivoire since last year and is helping to mediate a peace agreement following the breakout of a civil war in 2002, but the implementation of the pact has been fitful and Côte d’Ivoire has remained divided. – Sapa-AFP