{"id":322,"date":"2004-11-06T23:12:21","date_gmt":"2004-11-07T05:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=322"},"modified":"2004-11-06T23:12:36","modified_gmt":"2004-11-07T05:12:36","slug":"ivory-coast-mobs-target-french","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=322","title":{"rendered":"Ivory Coast mobs target French"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, looks like French and UN involvement may legitimize foreign intervention in some eyes, but they don’t guarantee things will go smoothly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mobs loyal to the Ivory Coast government roamed the streets in two major cities of the West African country, searching for foreigners to attack.<\/p>\n

The search on Saturday came as nine French troops were killed and 23 other people were injured when Ivory Coast warplanes bombed a French position near Bouake, a rebel stronghold.<\/p>\n

An American citizen was also killed, but the State Department said details of the death were unclear.<\/p>\n

Ivory Coast has been split between the loyalist south and rebel-held north since an attempted coup in September 2002 triggered a civil war. The nation gained its independence from France in 1960.<\/p>\n

Although French forces have often kept rebels away from government positions, they are widely suspected in the nationalistic south of siding with the rebels, The Associated Press reports.<\/p>\n

About 4,000 French troops and 6,000 U.N. forces are in the country, according to the AP.<\/p>\n

The U.N. Security Council, meeting in an emergency session Saturday, condemned the initial attack on French forces as a violation of a May cease-fire agreement, and demanded the “immediate cessation” of military operations in accordance with that agreement.<\/p>\n

France and the U.N. forces were authorized to use “all necessary means” to carry out that directive, a U.N. statement read.<\/p>\n

….<\/p>\n

Appearing on national television, presidential spokesman Desire Tagro called for calm said mobs should stop attacking civilians.<\/p>\n

The leaders of the Young Patriots group also appeared on television to accuse France of attacking Yamoussoukro, the country’s capital, and said the pro-government militia is now at war with France, CNN has learned.<\/p>\n

French troops retaliated to the attack by government warplanes, destroying an Ivorian military base in Yamoussoukro and a stash of weapons, CNN has learned.<\/p>\n

….<\/p>\n

About 100 people were stranded to the south at Abidjan’s airport when the facility was closed, said Carrie Giardino, a reporter for Voice of America. Earlier, smoke billowed from the suburb of Cocody after an attack on a French school. Pro-government rebels were stationed at roadblocks in the city, attacking cars holding suspected foreigners.<\/p>\n

Explosions could also be heard in Abidjan, she said.<\/p>\n

The French deaths and injuries resulting from Saturday’s bombing were confirmed by John Victor Nkolo, spokesman for the U.N. operations in the Ivory Coast, and the French Defense Ministry.<\/p>\n

The African Union, meanwhile, accused the Ivory Coast government of breaking existing peace agreements, according to a statement issued after top-level crisis talks.<\/p>\n

AU chairman Olusegun Obasanjo, president of Nigeria, “expressed his deep concern at the renewed fighting, particularly at the bombardment by government forces on rebel locations in the northern part of Ivory Coast,” through a statement read to CNN by presidential spokeswoman Remi Oyo.<\/p>\n

….<\/p>\n

Obasanjo called for a change of the U.N. mandate in Ivory Coast from one of peacekeeping to peace-enforcing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I love the smell of French military involvement in the morning. It smells like … quagmire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, looks like French and UN involvement may legitimize foreign intervention in some eyes, but they don’t guarantee things will go smoothly. Mobs loyal to the Ivory Coast government roamed the streets in two major cities of the West African country, searching for foreigners to attack. The search on Saturday came as nine French troops […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-europe","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}