The French president, Jacques Chirac, vowed on Sunday to keep his troops in Côte d’Ivoire to prevent the former colony from sliding into anarchy or fascism, and condemned the ”questionable regime” of the country’s president.
His pledge came shortly before African leaders attending a summit on the crisis in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Sunday night agreed to back a draft United Nations security council resolution calling for an arms embargo, a travel ban and asset freezes against anyone blocking peace in Côte d’Ivoire.
The arms embargo ”should be immediate”, the Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, the current African Union chairperson, said.
Those attending the summit included the heads of state of Gabon, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Senegal. President Laurent Gbagbo was invited but sent his parliamentary speaker, Mamadou Koulibaly, instead.
He condemned the call for sanctions, and complained African leaders had slighted him — barring him from most of the talks, and even dinner.
French jumbo jets continued the evacuation of thousands of its citizens and other foreigners from the country on Sunday, following last week’s anti-French rioting by supporters of Gbagbo.
Gbagbo criticised French troops for using excessive force in protecting French citizens. At least 27 people were killed, virtually all of them Ivorian, and 900 injured, in the violent demonstrations.
French businesses and schools were looted and destroyed in the protests called by Gbagbo.
Chirac told a student forum in Marseille: ”We do not want to let a system develop that could lead to anarchy or a regime of a fascist nature,” according to Associated Press.
He said he would not consider a pullout of French troops ”when we have an international mandate supported by all Africans”.
Chirac was adamant that France would keep its 4 000 troops in Côte d’Ivoire as part of the 10 000-strong UN force separating the government-controlled south from the rebel-held north.
At home Gbagbo is surrounding himself with hardline supporters and has not left the presidential mansion since the troubles began.
Apparently fearing an overthrow attempt by France, Gbagbo has kept his youth militia manning roadblocks around his residence, and over the weekend sacked his popular army chief of staff.
He replaced him with Colonel Philippe Mangou, who oversaw the assault on the rebel-held north just over a week ago which shattered an 18-month ceasefire.
During that campaign Ivorian aircraft killed nine French peacekeepers and one American aid worker in a bombing raid on a well-marked French peacekeeping base on November 6. This caused an unparalleled confrontation between France and the West African country.
France swiftly responded by destroying the Ivorian air force, consisting of two jets and five attack helicopters. This in turn triggered the rampage by Gbagbo’s supporters in Abidjan. Since Thursday more than 5Â 000 expatriates have fled the country that was once a model of post-independence prosperity. – Guardian Unlimited