French forces take over Abidjan
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French forces take over Abidjan airport
French forces secure country's main airport as fighters amass in battle to control Cote d'Ivoire's commercial capital.
Last Modified: 03 Apr 2011 11:36
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French forces have taken over the airport in Abidjan as forces loyal to Cote d'Ivoire's presidential rivals continue to battle for control of the country's main city.
Reporting the French intervention, state television urged the city's residents to mobilise and protect Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president. The channel also accused Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, of wanting to engage in genocide in the West African country.
Paris called for French citizens in Abidjan to assemble together without delay, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said on Sunday.
France is mulling a possible evacuation of its 12,000 citizens who live in the country because of the fighting.
"[Sarkozy] has decided that all French citizens in Abidjan should be grouped together without delay to ensure their protection," the French president's office said.
Gerard Longuet, the French defence minister, said on Sunday evening that the question of evacuation would be settled within hours.
"We will not expose French people to being hostages or indirect victims of confrontation between these two forces," Longuet said in an interview on French television LCI.
"Alert, alert... The French army is occupying since last night the airport of Felix Houphouet Boigny," the caption read over images of Gbagbo that were aired late on Saturday.
"Seven cargo planes, transporting 100 tanks and more than 2,000 soldiers; elements of the airport squadron have been taken prisoner. Sarkozy's men are preparing a Rwandan genocide in Cote d'Ivoire. Ivorians, let us go out en masse and occupy the streets. Let us stay standing," it continued.
The latest developments come as a fierce standoff between fighters loyal to Gbagbo and his rival for power Alassane Ouattara, the country's internationally recognised leader, intensify.
Gbagbo's force retook the bridge leading to his presidential palace on Saturday after the opposition had appeared poised to topple him.
Pro-Ouattara forces had marched easily into the country's largest city, where they encircled the presidential palace and Gbagbo's home on Thursday and Friday.
France said its forces took over Abidjan airport on Saturday to facilitate the evacuation of foreigners and sent an additional 300 troops to the country, bringing its total deployment to 1,500.
Massacre
The latest fighting follows an alleged massacre of hundreds of people in the small town of Duekoue in the west.
The United Nations mission in Ivory Coast [ONUCI] said on Saturday that traditional hunters known as Dozos had joined Ouattara's forces in killing 330 people in Duekoue.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "concerned and alarmed" about reports that pro-Ouattara forces may have killed civilians in a conversation late on Saturday with Ouattara, who told him his forces were not involved in the Duekoue killings.
Ouattara's government said in a statement that Dozos were not part of its forces and invited international human rights organisations to investigate the killings and rights violations.
"The government [Ouattara's] notes with regret that the allegations of the deputy chief of ONUCI human rights division are not supported by any evidence after its preliminary investigation," the statement read.
A Catholic charity, Caritas, said up to 1,000 people had been killed by unknown attackers wielding machetes and guns. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) earlier estimated the death toll at around 800 people.
It is not clear whether the 330 counted by ONUCI were included in the figures.
VIOLENCE MAPPED
Alistair Dutton, the humanitarian director of Caritas, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that members of his organisation were on an investigating team, including UN officials and representatives of other NGOs, which travelled to Duekoue on Wednesday.
"There they found the aftermath of a mass slaughter of somewhere between eight hundred and a thousand people who had been killed," he said.
The team found bodies lying in the streets and the bushes, he said.
The victims appeared to have been civilians, Dutton said, who had been "caught up somehow between [the two] warring factions".
According to Caritas, the killings occurred from Sunday 27 to Tuesday 29 March in the 'Carrefour' neighbourhood controlled by fighters loyal to Ouattara. It was not clear who the perpetrators were.
The UN says it is investigating the alleged mass killings. Hundreds of UN peacekeepers are based in the town.
Fleeing fighting
Tens of thousands of Ivorian refugees have fled into neighbouring Liberia since the fighting began. Many others remain trapped inside Cote d'Ivoire.
Particularly in Abidjan, many civilians are too scared to leave their homes.
With foreigners targeted in the fighting in Abidjan, many are seeking refuge.
French troops have escorted about 1,400 foreigners, a third of them French, to a French military camp in Port Bouet, near Abidjan.
There were no immediate plans for the French army to evacuate the other foreigners, officials said.
The UN mission in the Cote d’Ivoire began evacuating some 200 members of its staff after its headquarters were repeatedly attacked, Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker reported.
Non-essential staff were evacuated several months ago. The UN's military personnel will remain.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
French forces secure country's main airport as fighters amass in battle to control Cote d'Ivoire's commercial capital.
Last Modified: 03 Apr 2011 11:36
Email ArticlePrint ArticleShare ArticleSend Feedback
French forces have taken over the airport in Abidjan as forces loyal to Cote d'Ivoire's presidential rivals continue to battle for control of the country's main city.
Reporting the French intervention, state television urged the city's residents to mobilise and protect Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president. The channel also accused Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, of wanting to engage in genocide in the West African country.
Paris called for French citizens in Abidjan to assemble together without delay, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said on Sunday.
France is mulling a possible evacuation of its 12,000 citizens who live in the country because of the fighting.
"[Sarkozy] has decided that all French citizens in Abidjan should be grouped together without delay to ensure their protection," the French president's office said.
Gerard Longuet, the French defence minister, said on Sunday evening that the question of evacuation would be settled within hours.
"We will not expose French people to being hostages or indirect victims of confrontation between these two forces," Longuet said in an interview on French television LCI.
"Alert, alert... The French army is occupying since last night the airport of Felix Houphouet Boigny," the caption read over images of Gbagbo that were aired late on Saturday.
"Seven cargo planes, transporting 100 tanks and more than 2,000 soldiers; elements of the airport squadron have been taken prisoner. Sarkozy's men are preparing a Rwandan genocide in Cote d'Ivoire. Ivorians, let us go out en masse and occupy the streets. Let us stay standing," it continued.
The latest developments come as a fierce standoff between fighters loyal to Gbagbo and his rival for power Alassane Ouattara, the country's internationally recognised leader, intensify.
Gbagbo's force retook the bridge leading to his presidential palace on Saturday after the opposition had appeared poised to topple him.
Pro-Ouattara forces had marched easily into the country's largest city, where they encircled the presidential palace and Gbagbo's home on Thursday and Friday.
France said its forces took over Abidjan airport on Saturday to facilitate the evacuation of foreigners and sent an additional 300 troops to the country, bringing its total deployment to 1,500.
Massacre
The latest fighting follows an alleged massacre of hundreds of people in the small town of Duekoue in the west.
The United Nations mission in Ivory Coast [ONUCI] said on Saturday that traditional hunters known as Dozos had joined Ouattara's forces in killing 330 people in Duekoue.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "concerned and alarmed" about reports that pro-Ouattara forces may have killed civilians in a conversation late on Saturday with Ouattara, who told him his forces were not involved in the Duekoue killings.
Ouattara's government said in a statement that Dozos were not part of its forces and invited international human rights organisations to investigate the killings and rights violations.
"The government [Ouattara's] notes with regret that the allegations of the deputy chief of ONUCI human rights division are not supported by any evidence after its preliminary investigation," the statement read.
A Catholic charity, Caritas, said up to 1,000 people had been killed by unknown attackers wielding machetes and guns. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) earlier estimated the death toll at around 800 people.
It is not clear whether the 330 counted by ONUCI were included in the figures.
VIOLENCE MAPPED
Alistair Dutton, the humanitarian director of Caritas, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that members of his organisation were on an investigating team, including UN officials and representatives of other NGOs, which travelled to Duekoue on Wednesday.
"There they found the aftermath of a mass slaughter of somewhere between eight hundred and a thousand people who had been killed," he said.
The team found bodies lying in the streets and the bushes, he said.
The victims appeared to have been civilians, Dutton said, who had been "caught up somehow between [the two] warring factions".
According to Caritas, the killings occurred from Sunday 27 to Tuesday 29 March in the 'Carrefour' neighbourhood controlled by fighters loyal to Ouattara. It was not clear who the perpetrators were.
The UN says it is investigating the alleged mass killings. Hundreds of UN peacekeepers are based in the town.
Fleeing fighting
Tens of thousands of Ivorian refugees have fled into neighbouring Liberia since the fighting began. Many others remain trapped inside Cote d'Ivoire.
Particularly in Abidjan, many civilians are too scared to leave their homes.
With foreigners targeted in the fighting in Abidjan, many are seeking refuge.
French troops have escorted about 1,400 foreigners, a third of them French, to a French military camp in Port Bouet, near Abidjan.
There were no immediate plans for the French army to evacuate the other foreigners, officials said.
The UN mission in the Cote d’Ivoire began evacuating some 200 members of its staff after its headquarters were repeatedly attacked, Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker reported.
Non-essential staff were evacuated several months ago. The UN's military personnel will remain.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Comments
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Man ? that punk ass Frenchman. if the AU didn't call them ? out after attacking Libya they would have done ? .
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yea i m from the Ivory Coast and a lot of my family still lives there. There is a lot of shenanigans going on at the moment. Thnks to the French.
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The French been getting busy lately
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Yeah the French aren't playing, they're fighting against Gbagbo's troops and anyone in between now it seems
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kinda disgusted by all the nationality based evacuations we've seen the last few months btw, if you are going into mayhem, save all the children, not just the ones that bump ur flag.
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They say that the troops of Ouatarra just entered the Gbagbo residence, they are not reporting if gbagbo is there or not etc
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well, you've got basically three nations in NATO that can project military force like this, and when Africa's involved, France is always more active as they see it as more "their" domainJonas.dini wrote: »The French been getting busy lately -
Pro-Ouattara forces launch palace assault
Fierce fighting rages in Cote d'Ivoire's main city as pro-Ouattara forces claim to be inside presidential residence.
Last Modified: 05 Apr 2011 09:30
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Fighting flared across Abidjan as forces loyal to Ouattara streamed into the city from the north [Reuters]
Heavy fighting is continuing in Abidjan where forces loyal to Cote d'Ivoire's presidential rivals are battling for control of the country's main city.
Fighters supporting Alassane Ouattara, internationally recognised as Cote d'Ivoire's legitimate president, launched an assault around the presidential palace early on Tuesday as they attempt to oust incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo from power.
Machine gun and heavy weapons fire could be heard near the palace before dawn, witnesses told Reuters, while a spokesman for Ouattara's government has claimed its troops have already occupied Gbagbo's official presidential residence further to the east in Abidjan.
"Yes, they are inside his residence. They are in control," Patrick Achi told Reuters by telephone. "But if Gbagbo's there or not, I do not know."
'Negotiating surrender'
Gbagbo is apparently "negotiating his surrender," Ally Coulibaly, the ambassador to France appointed by Ouattara, said on Tuesday.
"I believe Laurent Gbagbo is alive. I have learned that he is negotiating his surrender," the diplomat said on French radio RFI.
"Abidjan has become a rumour mill and I do not want to add to the disinformation. What I have learned is that since yesterday he (Gbagbo) has been seeking to negotiate. It is not too late," said the diplomat, a close advisor to Ouattara.
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Coulibaly said he did not know through what channels Gbagbo was negotiating or whether a mediator was involved.
Hamadoun Toure, a spokesperson for the UN mission in Cote d'Ivoire, told Al Jazeera that the UN does not have confirmation on these alleged talks.
Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa, reporting from Bassam, just outside Abidjan, said Gbagbo's options are limited.
"The fighting seems to have stopped for a while, which means perhaps something could be happening. No one knows where Gbagbo is but wherever he is, his options are clearly limited. The only option he could have is accept some kind of exit package, maybe going into exile."
The clashes are the fiercest since fighters supporting Ouattara entered Abidjan five days ago, having already claimed control of many of the country's other major towns.
United Nations and French military forces launched attacks against Gbagbo's heavy weaponry on Monday claiming the weapons had been used to target civilians.
"We started an operation to neutralise heavy weapons used to attack the civilian population and UN peacekeepers in Abidjan," Toure told Al Jazeera.
"Heavy weapons used by forces loyal to Gbagbo are stored in various camps in Abidjan. These sites are the targets."
He said the UN mandate is to protect civilians and that its forces would not intervene in fighting between Gbagbo troops and forces loyal to Ouattara.
"If it's fighting between the two armies we don't intervene, because we're impartial, we're neutral," he said.
Explosions rang out near the presidential palace and at three strategic military garrisons, including the Akouedo military camp.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy spoke to Ouattara twice on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Cote d'Ivoire.
"There have not been new strikes by the Licorne force this morning," Thierry Burkhard, the French armed forces spokesman, said, referring to France's 1,650-strong force which destroyed rocket-propelled grenade launchers and television transmitters with missiles.
Sarkozy said in a statement that he had authorised the French force to help in the operation following an appeal from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said the use of force was necessary to prevent further attacks on civilians.
"In the past few days, forces loyal to Mr Gbagbo have intensified and escalated their use of heavy weapons such as mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns against the civilian population in Abidjan," Ban said in a statement.
Following four months of attempts to negotiate Gbagbo's departure, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution giving the 12,000-strong peacekeeping operation the right "to use all necessary means to carry out its mandate to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence ... including to prevent the use of heavy weapons against the civilian population."
Ouattara's forces have effectively cornered Gbagbo and his closest supporters after four days of fierce fighting.
Al Jazeera's Mutasa said the people living outside Abidjan were "on edge" after hearing that an "all-out assault by Ouattara's forces is imminent".
"The disturbing thing is the checkpoints and barricades being manned by young men who are unemployed, some of them intoxicated, armed with machetes, [who] decide who goes in and out of Abidjan," she said.
Massacre investigated
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said on Monday that investigators from the world body were probing allegations that hundreds of people have been massacred in the town of Duekoue.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Saturday that at least 800 people were killed in intercommunal violence there last week.
The UN peacekeeping mission said the same day that pro-Ouattara forces had killed 220 people and pro-Gbagbo militia fighters killed more than 110 people in Duekoue.
Amos, who is visiting the town as part of a trip to establish humanitarian needs in the country, told Reuters she could not confirm that as many as 800 people had been killed.
"What we do have from the investigations that are being conducted by our colleagues on the human rights side of the United Nations is that they found a mass grave," she said.
"They already found nearly 200 bodies in that grave, and they have found bodies in other parts of the town as well."
Duekoue, which lies in the cocoa-growing belt of western Cote d'Ivoire, was captured by Ouattara's forces on March 29.
Amos said she could not say who was responsible for the killings. People she had spoken to had variously blamed them on Ouattara's forces, fleeing pro-Gbagbo forces and local militia, as well as conflict between natives and non-natives. -
Yeah thats incredible, its all out war over there. The UN is backing the Ouatarra troops.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm-WsvKZiR0