An international rights group accused Côte d’Ivoire on Friday of recruiting former child soldiers and other fighters from neighbouring Liberia, luring them with offers of cash, food and clothing in anticipation of renewed civil-war battles in the country.
Mounting tensions in Côte d’Ivoire have led to fears of a new outbreak of violence as early as Sunday, when presidential elections had been scheduled. President Laurent Gbagbo cancelled the vote last month.
Both rebels who control the north and opposition leaders agreed with Gbagbo that the nation was not ready for a vote, but they reject Gbagbo’s claim that the Constitution allows him to remain in power after Sunday and have called for weekend demonstrations.
Gbagbo has banned street protests, setting the stage for possible confrontations.
On Friday, New York-based Human Rights Watch said military officers from Côte d’Ivoire are seeking children in its war-ruined western neighbour to fight alongside government forces in case of any renewed fighting with rebels who have held the north since 2003.
”The Ivorian government is bolstering its military manpower by recruiting children who fought in Liberia’s brutal civil war,” Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the group’s Africa division, said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Gbagbo denied the allegations, noting the country is under an arms embargo.
”For us, the war is finished. We’re in the diplomatic phase and all factors are in our favour,” said Desire Tagro. But he also said the country has enough of its own fighters if that becomes
necessary.
”We don’t understand why we would be recruiting children in Liberia. This report totally makes no sense.”
The rights group said it has interviewed 19 ex-combatants from Liberia’s brutal 1989-2003 civil war, including three children, who reported contacts with recruiters from Côte d’Ivoire as well as former Liberian commanders.
The Liberian ex-combatants were offered hundreds of dollars as well as rice and clothing to cross into Côte d’Ivoire.
Interviewees, who weren’t named, said they had been taken to government-allied militia bases in Côte d’Ivoire’s government-held west.
The rights group said one ex-Liberian fighter reported hearing a briefing on a Côte d’Ivoire military mission. Details weren’t released.
Côte d’Ivoire’s civil war sparked in 2003 after a failed coup attempt. Widespread fighting largely ended in early 2004 with a French-brokered peace deal, but few of the pact’s tenets have since been put into place. Fighters are armed and the country remains divided.
About 10 000 French and United Nations peacekeepers are guarding front lines, but African officials have called for the force to be bolstered. Few in the region believe it could now halt a determined offensive by either side.
With Sunday’s presidential vote cancelled, the UN has endorsed a one-year extension of Gbagbo’s mandate, calling on all sides to select a prime minister with strong powers to lead a government of national unity. — Sapa-AP