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ABIDJAN, Jan. 2 (GIN) -- A government attack by helicopter on
a rebel-held village in the center of embattled Ivory Coast was
condemned by the French military detachment which has reportedly
been assigned to preserve a fragile ceasefire in this West
African nation.
The 2,500 French troops insist they are neutral in the
fighting which pits the government against three rebel divisions.
A rebellion against the government of Laurent Gbagbo was sparked
on Sept. 19 with an attempt by the government to lay off hundreds
of soldiers they believed supported another political partys
losing bid for office.
A French military source said Tuesday's attack - in which 11
civilians are said to have died - was "unacceptable" and would
have "inevitable repercussions".
It is the first time the French have criticized either side
since agreeing to maintain the fragile truce signed by the
government and the main rebel group, the Ivory Coast Patriotic
Movement (MPCI).
The statement came as another rebel group on Wednesday opened
up a new front in the south-west of the country, close to the
Liberian border.
The MPCI, who launched the civil war three months ago by
trying to overthrow President Laurent Gbagbo, hold the
Muslim-dominated northern half of Ivory Coast.
Government helicopter gunships reportedly attacked the
lakeside fishing village of Menakro, about 30 miles north of the
ceasefire line agreed in October.
"People were shot like rabbits," a French soldier told AFP
news agency. "This is a very serious incident," French military
spokesman Ange-Antoine Leccia said.
Meanwhile, a rebel army in the western part of the Ivory Coast
warned French troops to stay out of the internal dispute.
While French insist that they are enforcing the ceasefire,
rebel groups accuse them of siding with government forces.
"Yesterday the French were coming up the road towards Bangolo,
so our forces had to react immediately... If France want was,
France will get war," said Felix Doh of the rebel Ivorian
People's Group of the Far West (IMPIGO).
