South African President Thabo Mbeki flew to Côte d’Ivoire on Tuesday morning to help find a solution to the political unrest in the country, the department of Foreign Affairs said.
The decision to invite Mbeki was made on Saturday in a meeting held in Nigeria between the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
Mbeki was accompanied by Defence Minister Mosiua Lekota and Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad.
”President Mbeki had consultations with the leadership of Ecowas over the weekend. South Africa’s humble acceptance of this mandate is consistent with its ongoing desire to find political solutions to conflict situations in the continent,” said Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.
”To that end South Africa remains committed to working closely with the AU, Ecowas and the leadership of the Ivory Coast with a view to assisting its people to develop political solutions to their current challenges.”
Mamoepa was unwilling to comment on the duration of Mbeki’s visit.
French troops were in a tense standoff with thousands of supporters of Côte d’Ivoire’s president on Monday as the country threatened to plunge into further violence.
Fifty French armoured vehicles manned by armed soldiers were assembled around the residence of President Laurent Gbagbo in the main city, Abidjan, and barbed wire was thrown around their positions. Gbagbo’s supporters then attempted to form a human shield between his residence and the French troops.
French officials said their forces were securing the upmarket Hotel Ivoire, about 200 metres from the presidential mansion, as a gathering point for the possible evacuation of French nationals.
Nearly 2Â 000 foreign nationals were sheltering in French and United Nations bases in Abidjan, many plucked to safety on Sunday by French helicopters as armed mobs looted their homes. French troops also took control of the international airport and strategic bridges in the city.
In Paris, President Jacques Chirac flatly denied that the French soldiers had assembled to take over the presidential mansion. Chirac said on Monday that French troops in Côte d’Ivoire were acting ”with the sole objective” of guaranteeing the safety of the 10 000-12 000 French citizens in the country.
He said France was a ”friend” and hoped Côte d’Ivoire would ”return to the path of national reconciliation”.
But Ivorian state radio claimed that the French army planned an assault on the president and urged residents to come out on the streets to protect their head of state.
A presidential spokesperson, Désiré Tagro, said the French army action frightened the population. ”Their presence here is scaring people. They’re crying and they think that President Gbagbo is going to be overthrown,” Tagro told Associated Press.
The French troops fired into the air on Monday afternoon to disperse the president’s supporters.
Côte d’Ivoire’s army chief of staff, General Mathias Doue, tried to defuse the situation by meeting French officers at their base in the Hotel Ivoire. Both the hotel and the presidential palace are in the upmarket Cocoby neighbourhood, separated by a lagoon from the busy city centre.
But even as the officials were in discussions, French helicopters clattered over Abidjan and gunfire and thudding explosions could be heard elsewhere in the city centre.
The unrest caused the price of cocoa — of which Côte d’Ivoire produces 45% of the world’s total — to rise by 12% on international markets on Monday.
”It is very tense, very volatile,” a British embassy official said on Monday afternoon.
”Things could turn violent at any moment.”
Most of Abidjan’s embassies and main stores were closed on Monday. Thousands responded to the state broadcasts which appealed to people to fill the streets around the president’s home. They chanted angry anti-French statements. ”The whites don’t like the blacks, but we don’t care!” mobs yelled.
”Ivory Coast is a sovereign state,” declared placards waved by the protesters.
Monday’s standoff in front of the presidential residence followed the weekend attack by Ivorian forces on French troops and the French counterattack which destroyed the planes of the Ivorian air force.
On Saturday, Côte d’Ivoire’s forces launched a surprise airstrike on a French peacekeeping post which killed nine French soldiers and one American.
France has about 4 000 peacekeepers in Côte d’Ivoire. The United Nations has about 6 000, in a buffer zone between rebel north and government south.
The bodies of the nine French soldiers were flown home on Monday, along with 34 injured. France swiftly retaliated for the deaths of its soldiers. Late on Saturday the French armed helicopters bombed and destroyed all the aircraft of the fledgling Ivorian air force. Two Russian-made Sukhoi 25 warplanes and five helicopters were destroyed on the ground in Abidjan and the capital, Yamoussoukro.
Speaking in Paris on Monday, Chirac said the United Nations security council had unanimously approved his decision to destroy the aircraft.
The destruction of the planes sparked riots across Abidjan and other cities. Tens of thousands of residents rampaged through the streets, attacking and looting French-owned shops and houses. Although several foreigners were attacked and beaten, so far no deaths have been reported. – Guardian Unlimited