Abidjan

Hundreds of youths who back Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo gathered on Friday at Abidjan airport, where 300 French nationals were due to leave the country after days of anti-French riots.

At least 29 fighters were killed in heavy clashes on Wednesday between Ivory Coast soldiers and Liberians fighting for two rebel movements in the west of the country, a representative for the Ivorian army said.

Four months of war have brought the economy of Ivory Coast to its knees — something that rebels and politicians attending peace talks near Paris from Wednesday will bear in mind as they discuss the political issues.

Ivory Coast’s main political parties meeting from Wednesday in Paris to try and end a 16-week conflict will not only have to bury the hatchet with rebels but also among themselves to ensure a lasting peace.

Anne Boher, a French journalist working for the Reuters news agency was briefly detained by Ivory Coast authorities and released without charge, Reuters said on Tuesday.

The government authorities in Ivory Coast have arrested a French journalist working for the Reuters news agency, accusing her of spying for rebels in the west African state, official Ivory Coast radio said on Tuesday.

Two rebel groups in Ivory Coast on Monday boosted hopes for an end to 16 weeks of war dividing the west African country, saying they were ready to attend peace talks in Paris.

Rebels clashed on Monday with French forces in Ivory Coast’s war-torn West, firing mortars at positions held by French troops, a French army representative said.

Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and his ministers faced a virulent media attack on Friday after their incredibly high salaries were publicly announced for the first time.

In Ivory Coast, shaken by an army mutiny, the official media are providing little hard news on the crisis, three foreign radio stations are cut, and the international press is described as an enemy.

The Ivory Coast town of Man was late on Monday ”totally under control” of forces loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo, who would soon try to recapture more rebel-held towns, an Ivorian army
representative said.

Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, facing rebels who refuse to lay down their arms, must now battle on three fronts — military, diplomatic and political.

Ivory Coast pulled back from the brink of civil war Friday, with a ceasefire signed exactly four weeks after mutineers and ex-soldiers staged an uprising that threatened to destabilise all of west Africa.

Hopes for peace in Ivory Coast rose on Saturday after France agreed its troops would help keep a ceasefire, but fears of instability persisted and the United States ordered non-essential embassy staff to leave.

Ivory Coast Defence Minister Moise Lida Kouassi vowed on Saturday that the government would launch a broad offensive very soon against rebels who staged an uprising in the west African country and now control two towns.

Cocoa plantations in eastern Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest producer, are seeing an increased incidence of a virulent form of fungal pod rot which has slunk over the border from Ghana

As the crisis sparked by a rebel uprising in Ivory Coast drags on, gods, prophets and mysticism are appearing everywhere — in newspapers, on television, even in political debate.

Government delegations from Nigeria and Ghana are due in the Togolese capital, Lome, on Monday for preliminary talks on the crisis in Ivory Coast, says Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema.

Shaken but safe, foreign evacuees on Sunday hugged relatives and exchanged tales of chaos reigning in a rebel-held city in western Ivory Coast.

The global media watchdog, Committee to Protect Journalists has appealed to Gambian president Yahya Jammeh to reject the National Media Commission Bill 2002.

French, South African and Bulgarian mercenaries have arrived in Ivory Coast to help the army counter a rebellion that has split the west African country in two, government sources admitted here on Monday.

French soldiers in Ivory Coast have come under rebel attack near Bangolo, in the west of the country, a representative for the French forces deployed in the former west African colony said on Saturday.

Ahmadou Kourouma, Ivory Coast’s leading novelist, has become the latest victim of a witch hunt on figures suspected of backing rebels in the country’s bitter two-month conflict.

Rebels controlling the north of Ivory Coast said late on Wednesday government helicopters had attacked their positions in the western region of Vavoua.

Hope is dying by the day that the two-month old crisis in Ivory Coast will be just a brief, if bloody, episode in one of Africa’s few success stories.

Paramilitaries set fire to immigrant shantytowns, rounding up young men and whipping them. Gangs armed with machetes chase down foreigners in the streets.

Automatic weapons fire erupted early on Thursday in Ivory Coast’s economic capital Abidjan in what a disgruntled soldier said was a protest over the imminent demobilisation of hundreds of troops.

Conflict-torn Ivory Coast slid further towards war as about 3 000 frenzied youths responded to a call to take up arms against rebels holding half the country and Belgium and Britain asked their citizens to leave immediately.

Getting a court case disposed off in Ghana has sometimes been very slow, making many Ghanaians weary of the time it took to conclude a matter in the High Court.