IVORY COAST: WEST AFRICAN PEACEKEEPERS FROM SENEGAL ARRIVE WITH AN AIM TO BOLSTER EFFORTS TO END CIVIL WAR

Record ID: 183547

  • Title: IVORY COAST: WEST AFRICAN PEACEKEEPERS FROM SENEGAL ARRIVE WITH AN AIM TO BOLSTER EFFORTS TO END CIVIL WAR
  • Date: 20th January 2003
  • Summary: (U6) ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (JANUARY 18, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV SOLDIERS FROM SENEGAL ARRIVE BY LANDING CRAFT; SLV SOLDIERS GETTING DOWN FROM THEIR VESSEL; MV SOLDIERS PRESENT ARMS (4 SHOTS) 0.15 2. (SOUNDBITE) (French) LIEUTENANT-COL DIOP SEYNI, COMMANDER OF SENEGALESE BATTALION, SAYING "We are going to relieve the French on the ceasefire line. It is ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African states) who will progressively take over this mission." 0.22 3. SLV ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER COMES DOWN FROM BOAT 0.25 4. SLV SENEGALESE SOLDIER IN AN ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER; SLV SOLDIERS MARCHING (3 SHOTS) 0.36 5. HAS/SLV PRO-GOVERNMENT DEMONSTRATORS MARCH THROUGH THE STREETS OF ABIDJAN; SLV DEMONSTRATORS WITH BANNERS SHOWING PRESIDENT LAURENT GBAGBO AND THE WORD: "RESIST" 0.48 6. MV ARRIVAL OF LEADING PRO-GOVERNMENT MILITANT CHARLES BLE GOUDE; MV GOUDE SALUTES THE CROWD (2 SHOTS) 0.57 7. SLV MARCHERS WITH POLICE; SLV MARCHERS WITH POSTER SAYING: "The round table or cross-roads in Paris? We don't care."; HAS SEA OF DEMONSTRATORS (3 SHOTS) 1.10 (U6) ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (JANUARY 17, 2002) (REUTERS) 8. SLV LIBERIAN REFUGEES WITH BAGS IN TABOU, A TOWN IN SOUTH WESTERN IVORY COAST; SLV PEOPLE WITH BAGS GETTING ONTO A TRUCK; SLV REFUGEES GETTING ONTO TRUCKS (5 SHOTS) 1.34 9. SLV CONVOY OF U.N. REFUGEE AGENCY TRUCKS MOVES TOWARDS THE BORDER, PAST A CHECKPOINT MANNED BY FRENCH SOLDIERS 1.44 10. MV LIBERIAN REFUGEES RETURNING HOME ACROSS THE RIVER DIVIDING LIBERIA AND IVORY COAST. (THE REFUGEES HAD FLED TO IVORY COAST BUT ARE NOW RETURNING HOME). 1.48 11. SLV REFUGEE AND CHILD ON A PIROGUE; SLV PIROGUES CROSSING RIVER ABIDJAN (2 SHOTS) 1.57 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 4th February 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST
  • Country: Ivory Coast
  • Reuters ID: LVA9XU8VOS89HEIN8THNBJLMF6P6
  • Story Text: West African peacekeepers from Senegal have arrived in
    Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan aiming to bolster efforts to
    end a four-month-old civil war.

    A boatload of Senegalese peacekeepers arrived in
    Abidjan as part of a West African force meant to help the
    French police enforce the cease-fire.

    Up to a million people have been displaced and hundreds
    have been killed in the fighting, which began with a failed
    coup in mid-September.

    The Senegalese will head to the capital, Yamoussoukro, and
    from there will deploy north to the front line between
    loyalist forces and the main rebel group.

    The peacekeeping force will eventually have more than
    1,200 troops.

    For now, no West African peacekeepers will be on the
    shakier truce line between the rebel factions in western Ivory
    Coast and the French army.

    The French have clashed several times with the insurgents
    there, killing dozens of them.

    "We are going to relieve the French on the ceasefire line.

    It is ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African states) who
    will progressively take over this mission," said Senegalese
    battalion commander Lt-Col Diop Seyni.

    Thousands of government supporters in the commercial
    capital Abidjan gathered in the city's main square, waving
    pro-government banners. Many had painted faces and branches
    wrapped around their heads to show they are prepared for war.

    There were fresh clashes in western Ivory Coast on
    Thursday (January 16) despite a cease-fire signed earlier this
    month and supervised by French forces.

    Although no deaths were reported, the fighting highlighted
    the fragility of the truce.

    Meanwhile, the U.N. refugee agency assisted hundreds of
    Liberians who wanted to return to their own country from the
    war in Ivory Coast. The Liberians originally fled Liberia's
    civil war, but now feel sufficiently threatened by events in
    Ivory Coast to want to return.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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