Two U.N. Mi-24 helicopters, piloted by Ukrainian peacekeepers, attacked two military bases controlled by Gbagbo’s forces. U.N. officials said French forces targeted heavy weaponry near the presidential palace and residence in Abidjan, as well as other installations under Gbagbo’s control.
The attacks marked a dramatic development in the international community’s efforts to force Gbagbo from power and provided a boost to Ivorian forces backing Gbagbo’s political rival, Alassane Ouattara, who is widely recognized as the winner of the country’s Nov. 28 presidential election.
Ouattara’s ambassador to Paris, Ali Coulibaly, said Tuesday that Gbagbo was believed to be in the process of negotiating his surrender, but Alain Toussant, Gbagbo’s adviser in Europe, said the president remained in his residence and would not give up.
But three of Gbagbo’s top generals have ordered their forces to cease fighting, surrender all weapons to the United Nations and to seek their protection from reprisals from Ouattara’s forces, according to a statement Tuesday by the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast.
The officials were Gen. Philippe Mangou, chief of staff of the Security Defense Forces; Gen. Thiape Kassarate Edouard, the top commander of the national gendarmerie; and general Bruno Dogbo Ble, commander of the Republican Guard.
“The U.N. received telephone calls from three high-ranking officials that an order to cease fire was being given to elements in the Security Defense Forces, including the special forces,” according to a U.N. statement. “The order was alo given to surrender weapons to UNOCI [the U.N. Mission in Ivory Coast] and seek protection from its forces.”
The statement says the U.N. mission has ordered its own troops to take weapons from Gbagbo’s forces when they are surrendered and to offer protection to disarmed soldiers.
Monday’s attacks represented a rare instance in which the United Nations has used force against a conventional army.
In a statement, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the United Nations was engaging in a limited military operation taken “in self defense and to protect” civilians. The operation, he said, did not constitute a decision by the United Nations to become “a party to the conflict” in Ivory Coast.
Nonetheless, the use of the 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping mission for offensive operations raised the possibility that it could get drawn deeper into a civil war, particularly if the Ivorian conflict is protracted. Hundreds of people have already been killed and up to 1 million have fled the violence. On Monday, a coalition of fighters loyal to Ouattara was massing on the edge of the commercial capital, Abidjan, suggesting the worst fighting might be yet to come.
Loading...
Comments