I Coast says 63 killed

2004-11-19 15:35

Abidjan - Ivory Coast said 63 people were killed in a week of clashes with French troops as it prepared on Friday to pass control of the military to hawkish Major Colonel Philippe Mangou.

General Mathias Doue, considered a moderating force in the Ivorian military, was to step down on Friday in place of Mangou, the former leader of the northern command deemed responsible for three days of air strikes on the rebel-held north this month that ruptured an 18-month-old ceasefire.

Mangou's appointment has been considered suspect by both France and the leadership of the rebels who have held the north of the former French colony in western Africa since a civil war erupted in September 2002.

The defence and security ministers told a cabinet meeting on Thursday that official figures showed 63 people were killed and about 1 300 injured in anti-French mob riots that flared after France wiped out the country's modest air force.

France retaliated

They were killed or wounded "by shots fired by the (French Unicorn) force... as they brought their troops into Abidjan during the demonstrations," Employment Minister Hubert Oulaye said, reading a statement after the meeting.

No independent confirmation of the casualty toll was available.

France was retaliating for a November 6 air strike that hit its military barracks in the central town of Bouake, a rebel stronghold, leaving nine French troops and a United States aid worker dead.

Rebel leader Guillaume Soro has said at least 85 civilians were killed in the three days of strikes launched, according to President Laurent Gbagbo, in a bid to "liberate and reunify" the divided country.

Once a beacon of stability for troubled west Africa, Ivory Coast has been mired in turmoil for two years, with the latest phase of unrest stoking regional fears that violence could bleed over its borders and destabilize the hard-won peace in neighbours such as Liberia, itself emerging from 14 years of war.

The African Union has dispatched South African President Thabo Mbeki to mediate the crisis, and has lined up behind an arms embargo imposed on Monday by the United Nations Security Council that could be followed by a targeted travel ban and the freezing of assets on December 15 should there be no progress towards peace.

Soro was on his own diplomatic offensive Friday, having again been sacked by Gbagbo from his post as communications minister in the unity government for his boycott of Thursday's cabinet meeting.

Soro met Thursday with UN special envoy to Ivory Coast Albert Teovedjre before travelling to Lome for talks with Togo President Gnassingbe Eyadema.

Oulaye said Gbagbo decided to suspend Soro and the other eight ministers representing the rebel New Forces - as well as five ministers from the main opposition Rally for Republicans - so as not to "handicap" government function.

The ministers opted out of Thursday's meeting for "security reasons," despite an offer of armed escorts from the UN operation in Ivory Coast.

- AFP