Ouattara ally calls for renewed offensive

French troops begin evacuating foreigners as Ouattara's prime minister calls for fresh assault against Gbagbo forces. Last Modified: 04 Apr 2011 08:04 Email Article Print Article Share Article Send Feedback

French army took over the airport in Abidjan, it said to facilitate the evacuation of foreigners [EPA] A leading ally of the internationally recognised president of Cote d'Ivore, Alassane Ouattara, has said the time is ripe for a "rapid offensive" in the commercial capital, Abidjan, where pro-Ouattara fighters are battling forces loyal to the country's incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo. "The operation will be rapid because we have discovered the exact number of operational tanks on the ground. Ivorians must trust in the Republican Forces [Ouattara's army]," Guillaume Soro, Ouattara's prime minister, told the AFP news agency on Monday. Ouattara's forces have effectively cornered Gbagbo and his closest supporters after four days of fierce fighting. But Gbagbo shows no signs of wavering, scoring a coup as his army chief of staff General Philippe Mangou seemed set to rejoin his side after seeking refuge in the South African ambassador's residence earlier this week, AFP said. The RTI television station, a vital means of communication between Gbagbo and his loyalists, was briefly captured by pro-Ouattara fighters last week before Gbagbo troops regained control and restored the signal. Messages on the station have urged civilians to form a "human shield" around Gbagbo's residence. Gbagbo's force retook the bridge leading to his presidential palace on Saturday after the opposition had appeared poised to topple him after marching into the country's largest city last week and claiming control of other towns and cities across the country. While Sunday was quieter than the three preceding days of the Ouattara offensive, sporadic heavy arms fire continued near Gbagbo strongholds such as the presidential palace. French troops take over airport Meanwhile, a first group of foreigners fleeing chaos was evacuated on Sunday as the French army took over the airport in Abidjan, wracked by the fighting. After the French Licorne (Unicorn) force took control of the airport, Paris sent 300 more troops to the city as more than 1,500 foreigners sought refuge at a French military camp. The French military said 167 foreigners, including French and Lebanese nationals, left Abidjan on Sunday for the Senegalese capital Dakar on a special flight. France is mulling a possible evacuation of its 12,000 citizens who live in the country because of the fighting. Paris called for French citizens in Abidjan to assemble together without delay Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said on Sunday. "[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. 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. Toussaint Alain, Gbagbo's spokesman in Paris, also denied his troops had played any role in the massacres. 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 'Mass slaughter' 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 800 and 1,000 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". Aid organisations say atrocities that could qualify as war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed by both sides. 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.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies