Côte d’Ivoire was under an arms embargo on Tuesday after a unanimous vote in the United Nations Security Council aiming to quell a new wave of unrest that has convulsed the West African state and sent thousands of foreigners fleeing.
The country’s northern rebels, meanwhile, were preparing a march towards the commercial capital, Abidjan, to demand reconciliation of the divided state.
The last plane requisitioned by France to evacuate its nationals and other Europeans from the former star French colony landed early on Tuesday morning in Paris with 250 passengers aboard.
Its arrival at Charles de Gaulle airport brought to more than 4 500 the number of foreigners who fled to Europe since Wednesday following a week of xenophobic violence and vandalism in Abidjan that left dozens of expatriates injured and traumatised, among them women who had been raped.
Another 1 000 escaped aboard private and military flights to points around West Africa, which has turned wary eyes towards Côte d’Ivoire since the latest turmoil erupted on November 4, fearing a reprise of war that could destabilise the fragile region.
Heeding a strong push from France and with the support of the African Union, the 15-member UN Security Council on Monday slapped an immediate arms embargo on Côte d’Ivoire, which will for the next 13 months impede President Laurent Gbagbo from rebuilding his modest air force destroyed last Saturday by the French military.
France was retaliating for an air raid on its base in the central town of Bouake — the stronghold of rebels who have held the country’s north since September 2002 — that killed nine French peacekeepers and a United States civilian.
The riposte sparked a fury of anti-French sentiment — egged on by hate messages broadcast over state radio and television — that seeped from Abidjan down the coast to the port town of San Pedro, a long-time host to French expatriates.
Between 6 000 and 10 000 Ivorian nationals have also fled over the western border into Liberia, impinging on that country’s already fragile post-war resources, to escape potential clashes between government and rebel military forces.
The rebels warned on Monday that they will avenge themselves if attacked, calling three days of air strikes earlier this month an opening offensive by a government unwilling to find a political solution to the two years of crisis that have left the country split between north and south.
In statements echoed by France, the rebels also noted that the choice of Colonel Philippe Mangou as the new armed forces Chief of Staff was a signal of President Laurent Gbagbo’s choice of the “war option”.
Mangou had until Sunday been in charge of the government’s military operations against the north and is considered responsible by France for the November 4 to 6 air strikes.
“If you want to make peace, you do not choose a hawk to be your war commander,” Cooperation Minister Xavier Darcos told French television on Tuesday. “It is a sign of hostility, a sign of provocation.”
Utilities supplies to the north were still switched off on Tuesday despite entreaties from humanitarian agencies warning of health risks should the populations be denied access to clean water.
And in Abidjan, French-owned and other businesses were tentatively opening their doors for the first time in more than a week and children were back in the streets on their way back to school.
Traders were again buying the fragrant cocoa beans of which Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s top producer, but exports from the main port in Abidjan had yet to resume. — AFP
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