UN helicopters fired missiles at the defeated president’s residence and two military bases yesterday after 11 peacekeepers were shot in the battle for Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, Abidjan.
Last night President Sarkozy authorised French troops to join UN operations. French military helicopters intervening alongside UN forces in Abidjan were ordered to target heavy weapons and armoured vehicles used by soldiers loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, a spokesman for the French Army headquarters in Paris said.
Colonel Thierry Burkhard, the French military spokesman, said that France had engaged several helicopters in the operation at the request of Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, with the aim of protecting the civilian population.
French forces had been told to “neutralise heavy weapons positioned in bases and units of armoured vehicles equipped with cannon and rocket launchers,” he added. The mission, he said, did not officially involve forcing Mr Gbagbo out of power, or providing military support for Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognised President-elect.
Mr Gbagbo has refused to acknowledge that he lost the election in November last year, precipitating a civil war that has already cost hundreds of lives.
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The strikes came after the UN chief’s representative accused Mr Gbagbo’s troops of perpetrating “mindless” attacks on the peacekeepers’ compound. Mr Gbagbo’s backers described the UN raids as an assassination attempt. Five people, including two French nationals, were kidnapped yesterday after troops loyal to Mr Ouattara launched a “final assault” on Mr Gbagbo’s forces. Mr Gbagbo is holed up with his Republican Guard in the presidential palace in Abidjan.
Guillaume Soro, Mr Ouattara’s Prime Minister, said that days of clashes in the city, once known for tree-lined boulevards and white office blocks, had sown panic among Mr Gbagbo’s forces, many of whom have deserted.
“The operation will be rapid because we have discovered the exact number of operational tanks on the ground. Ivorians must trust in [our] forces,” Mr Soro said.
Mr Ouattara’s troops captured most of the country after a major offensive a week ago. The battle for Abidjan has been much harder because Mr Gbagbo draws much of his support from the city.
Heavy weapons fire and explosions could be heard from Abidjan’s central Plateau area, where government buildings are located. “The offensive has been launched,” Sidiki Konate, an Ouattara government spokesman, confirmed. “We are securing our passage. The objective is to converge on Plateau and Cocody.” Cocody is the district where Mr Gbagbo lives. He has called on his backers to form a “human shield” around his residence. Most people are trapped indoors without food, water and electricity while armed gangs patrol the streets and deal brutally with perceived enemies.
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A few hardy residents ventured out after some had been at home for a week. Tra Po, a security guard who went looking for bread, said that he had not eaten for two days. “I had to go and knock on apartment doors and beg for food. The residents have started each bringing me one plate a day, but what happens when they run out of food?”
Pro-Gbagbo youths who have gathered to form a human chain around the presidential palace were among a crowd outside a Lebanese bakery which opened for a few hours. “There are several hundred of us at the presidential palace and no one has brought us food, or water, or even come to give us directions,” Babhi Kouakou, 24, said.
Basic services have all but collapsed. Hundreds of residents flocked to fill buckets, bottles and bowls with polluted water from the city’s lagoons.
Hundreds of thousands of other Ivorians have fled into neighbouring states, threatening a major humanitarian crisis in countries such as Guinea and Liberia, which are ill-equipped to deal with such an influx.
Yesterday France removed about 250 of its 2,000 nationals still in the country. On Sunday 167 left. The French army, which is a large contingent in the UN peacekeeping force, has taken control of Abidjan airport. The French force, Licorne, has about 1,650 people protecting civilians in Ivory Coast.
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Nearly 2,000 foreigners, about half of them French, have assembled at a French military camp. France has agreed to help any British citizens caught in the fighting.