Cote d'Ivoire's Govt. Forces Engage with Mutineers in Central City

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, September 25, 2002

Cote d'Ivoire's Govt. Forces Engage with Mutineers in Central City

The government troops of Cote d'Ivoire entering rebel-held Bouake Tuesday engaged in fierce battlewith the rebel soldiers in the streets of the strategic central city.

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The government troops of Cote d'Ivoire entering rebel-held Bouake Tuesday engaged in fierce battle with the rebel soldiers in the streets of the strategic central city.

Local radio reported that the fighting broke out in the eastern suburbs and then moved toward the central market, a situation that the government forces are pushing back rebel troops in the country's second largest city, 400 km north of Abidjan.

The two rival sides fought gun battles with bursts of gunfire and the sound of anti-tank rockets echoing through Bouake, witnesses told the radio.

Residents said they heard intense barrage of gunfire with heavy weapons and automatic arms firing on Monday night, but firing broke off on Tuesday morning.

Heavy shooting has been reported close to a Christian school housing some 160 school children, most of whom Americans.

There are thought to be about 600 French and 300 Americans caught up in the bloody military uprising in Bouake.

At the request of the United States ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire, the US government is sending troops to the west African country to help protect US citizens with the number of 2,000-3,000.

A US Navy spokesman said the troops would "go there and assist in moving American citizens from the Christian Academy, where they are, to a safe location, still within Cote d'Ivoire."

Meanwhile, French military reinforcements, who flew into Abidjan early Sunday, were heading north on standby to protect French citizens and other foreign nationals. There are 20,000 French citizens living in the west African country.

The French troops, with armored vehicles and helicopters, had set up a base overnight at Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire's administrative capital and 100 km south of Bouake.

As the situation is getting worse, an armored column of French troops left Yamoussoukro Tuesday to move closer to Bouake in preparation for evacuating foreigners.

More French paratroops from the Gabon's capital Libreville arrived in Abidjan on Tuesday afternoon.

The bloody army mutiny began last Thursday when the rebels took control of Bouake and the northern town of Korhogo, also the biggest town in the predominantly Muslim north.

In Korhogo, residents said mutineers are requisitioning private vehicles and have taken leading officials hostage.The government said they are preparing to retake it all.

To try to broker a peaceful solution to a crisis that is threatening to bring instability to the impoverished region, Morocco and Gabon are planning to invite President Laurent Gbagbo and five other African leaders to a meeting in Morocco.

But Cote d'Ivoire's presidency said it had yet to receive an official invitation.

The unrest, which has claimed hundreds of lives and left many injured, has plunged the west African country into its worst crisis since independence from France in 1960.

In what the government termed a failed coup, Interior Minister Emile Boga Doudou was killed by rebels and former military leader General Robert Guei, who was accused of fomenting the current unrest, was shot dead by loyalist forces.

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