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- Title: IVORY COAST: Ivory Coast government repels attacks on army bases
- Date: 3rd January 2006
- Summary: MV PRISONERS / ONE PRISONER BLEEDING (2 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 18th January 2006 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Defence / Military
- Reuters ID: LVAAD5REU89FF72OM2YHB4XBMTIM
- Story Text: Heavily armed men attacked two military bases in Ivory Coast's economic capital Abidjan on Monday (January 2), briefly seizing one before government forces recaptured it and restored control, officials said.
Residents woke to the sound of intense automatic rifle fire and detonations of heavier arms as fighting raged at two camps in the eastern Akouedo district of the lagoon city, the trading hub of the West African country, divided since a 2002 civil war.
Reuters reporters saw seven bodies, four in civilian clothes and three in military uniform, as well as burned-out vehicles and two prisoners, bloodied with their hands tied.
A senior military source put the death toll at 10 -- three loyalist soldiers and seven attackers, and said three soldiers had been arrested for helping the attackers.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the third such raid on police or military barracks in less than six months to shake a fragile peace process in the world's top cocoa grower.
Military officers said attackers armed with automatic rifles, heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, briefly took over the Basa anti-aircraft artillery base, one of two bases at Akouedo, before being dislodged by government troops and police backed by armoured vehicles.
A senior military official at the Basa base told Reuters an explosive device landed in a dormitory, wounding some soldiers.
The attacks came just days after new Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny named a cabinet to advance a U.N. peace plan.
"At around 0500 (GMT) this morning, the two camps at Akouedo were heavily attacked by infiltrators," army chief General Philippe Mangou said on state radio. "We can reassure the population that the situation is under control."
Some diplomats and military sources initially suggested the attackers may have been soldiers mutinying over pay, but Mangou denied the reports, which he blamed on foreign media.
President Laurent Gbagbo visited the bases and said the attackers had planned to attack another camp north of Abidjan.
"This is not a mutiny. These were aggressors who came from outside," Gbagbo told soldiers at one of the Akuedo camps.
New Force rebels, who have occupied the north of the country since 2002, denied responsibility for the raids, which temporarily disrupted cocoa exports in the southern port city.
"We have nothing to do with this. We think it's a problem among them (on the government side)," said Issiaka Ouattara, who is known as Commandant Wattao and is second in command of the rebels' military forces.
Helicopters of the French armed forces, which work with a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast, flew over the area and French consular officials urged their nationals to stay at home.
"This affair concerns neither the U.N. nor the (French army) but we remain vigilant," said French military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Luc Cotard.
Police said army reinforcements, including tanks and other armed vehicles, were sent to Akouedo. Republican Guard soldiers sealed off the main Plateau business district but the army's Mangou later said people should go about their business.
Under a U.N. peace plan, a process of disarmament and national reunification will precede elections due before the end of October. The U.N. blueprint allowed Gbagbo to remain in office beyond the Oct. 30 end of his five-year mandate.
Last month a group of unidentified gunmen attacked a police barracks in Abidjan, but were repulsed after a short gun battle.
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