Ivory Coast: Japanese ambassador must have seemed a soft target
Gbagbo fighters saw diplomat's residence as a vantage point over upscale suburb of Abidjan, until French troops attacked
A French army helicopter in Ivory Coast during the operation to rescue the Japanese ambassador. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
To the desperate troops guarding the besieged Ivory Coast leaderLaurent Gbagbo, it was a soft and tempting target. They stormed the residence of the Japanese ambassador in the city of Abidjan on Wednesday morning, barely allowing Yoshifumi Okamura time to escape with seven staff into a safe room behind a bulletproof door.
The fighters then set up rocket launchers and cannons on the roof of the house, which offered a view over the upscale, leafy suburb favoured by diplomats and the local elite, and began firing.
But they had not reckoned with an aerial attack. Shortly before midnight on Thursday, French troops with night-vision glasses abseiled down a rope from a helicopter into the Japanese residence. After coming under fire they shot back, the French military said, destroying three vehicles. In a 30-minute operation, the soldiers freed Okamura and his colleagues, one of whom was hurt, and airlifted them to a French military camp outside Abidjan.
The dramatic rescue mission highlights the chaotic situation in Ivory Coast's largest city, where Gbagbo is mounting a defiant last stand against the forces of Alassane Ouattara, who defeated him in the November presidential election. Besides taking over the Japanese residence, Gbagbo's fighters also tried to break into the French ambassador's house, before the French forces destroyed their two vehicles. Other countries are now frantically trying to extract their diplomats, with Israel requesting help from France in bringing its staff to safety.
Gbagbo is holed up in a bunker beneath his home in the suburb of Cocody, where Okamura's residence as well as those of other ambassadors are located along with many foreign embassies. According to the French defence minister, Gérard Longuet, 200 of the 1,000 men still loyal to Gbagbo are guarding the house, which is also protected by tanks and mortars, according to reports in France.
The fighters managed to repel an attack by Ouattara's forces on Wednesday, even as the Japanese ambassador and his staff remained trapped nearby, with rockets being fired from above them. Speaking in avideo released by the French military after the rescue mission, Okamura described his ordeal.
"Unfortunately my residence was attacked by mercenaries and I was locked in my room since the morning. The mercenaries took over my home but in the end I was saved by the Licorne [French peacekeeping troops in Ivory Coast], with professional work with helicopters," he said. "The work was very professional and they secured the environment, and that's why I am here."
According to the French military spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard, Okamura had alerted the Japanese authorities about his plight while in the safe room. The UN, which has a large peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast, then notified France, which has sent military reinforcements to the country in recent weeks.
Burkhard said Gbagbo's forces had used the Japanese residence to fire into residential areas, targeting the French ambassador's house in particular. France is the former coloniser of Ivory Coast, and has had poor relations with Gbagbo. Burkhard said the rescue mission had gone to plan.
"In less than half an hour, the ambassador and his colleagues were evacuated to [the military base of] Port Bouët. Our troops were engaged, which led to a response, mainly with anti-tank missiles."
No French soldiers were injured in the operation, he said.
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