IVORY COAST: Ivorian army puts on show amid fears of violence one day ahead of deadline for President Gbagbo resign

Record ID: 182648
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  • Title: IVORY COAST: Ivorian army puts on show amid fears of violence one day ahead of deadline for President Gbagbo resign
  • Date: 30th October 2005
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (French) GENERAL PHILLIPPE MANGOU, HEAD OF IVORY-COAST ARMY, SAYING: ''It is a multiforce exercise to test our soldiers operational capacities. We need this training to be more efficient on the field and we have conducted this exercise in good harmony with the population. We want everybody to be in a peaceful state of mind''
  • Embargoed: 14th November 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA2VKFELFYX8NZAAFT0VTXW2X66
  • Story Text: Government forces in Ivory Coast paraded armoured cars and staged manoeuvres in Abidjan on Saturday (October 29) to dispel fears of unrest surrounding a Sunday (October 30) deadline set by rebels for President Laurent Gbagbo to step down.
    Cheered by government supporters who lined the banks of the city's Ebrie Lagoon, Ivorian army commandos rappelled down from a helicopter and manoeuvred fast launches in an exercise simulating the rescue of national or foreign VIPs from rioters.
    It was only an exercise but fears of possible unrest after Gbagbo's current five-year term ends on Sunday have been growing in the West African nation, which has been split in two since a 2002 civil war. Anti-French riots also swept the main commercial city Abidjan last November.
    Rebels holding the northern half of the world's top cocoa grower demand that Gbagbo step down at midnight on Sunday and opposition youth leaders have threatened protests in the streets of Abidjan if he does not.
    Government supporters, who turned out by the hundreds to watch the manoeuvres, said they were a warning to the rebels not to try to impose their political demands by force.
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