W. Africa’s military chiefs agree to kick out Gbagbo if talks fail
SIA KAMBOU | AFP
A Cote d’Ivoire soldier stands guard during a rally held by Charles Ble Goude, leader of the country’s Young Patriots in Abidjan on Wednesday. Defiant Cote d’Ivoire leader Laurent Gbagbo’s lieutenant on Wednesday urged the strongman’s supporters to launch an unarmed assault on rival Alassane Ouattara’s UN-defended base.
ABIDJAN, Friday
Cote d’Ivoire faced a New Year overshadowed by the threat of open conflict as West African states said they were ready to deploy troops to oust Laurent Gbagbo by force if talks fail to resolve the standoff.
West African regional military chiefs have set in motion plans to oust the strongman if negotiations by regional mediators fail, a Nigerian defence spokesman, Colonel Mohamed Yerimah, told AFP in Lagos.
He said chiefs of defence staff from the Economic Community Of West African States (Ecowas) met this week in the Nigerian capital “to put machinery in motion that if all political persuasions fail ... Ecowas will forcefully take over power from Laurent Gbagbo and hand over to Alassane Ouattara”.
Ouattara, recognised by the international community as winner of the November 28 presidential election, is being protected by UN peacekeepers who on Friday were staring down a threat to storm a hotel which he has made his temporary headquarters in Abidjan.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon warned UN troops would use “all necessary means” to resist any assault on the hotel.
The UN chief was responding to a threat from strongman Laurent Gbagbo’s most notorious lieutenant to storm his rival’s base.
Gbagbo’s notorious “Street General”, Minister for Youth Charles Ble Goude, on Wednesday urged Ivorian youths to rise up after the New Year to seize control of Ouattara’s headquarters in the waterfront Golf Hotel resort.
“From January 1, I, Charles Ble Goude, and the youth of Cote d’Ivoire are going to liberate the Golf Hotel with our bare hands,” the political showman turned minister declared to a cheering crowd of hardline supporters.
The call came as the United Nations’ chief peacekeeper accused Gbagbo’s state media of “inciting hatred” against UN troops and as West African leaders promised to try once more to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the crisis.
“This is only the latest provocation from Gbagbo’s camp,” Ouattara’s spokeswoman Anne Ouluto told AFP by telephone from the hotel, where Cote d’Ivoire’s internationally recognised leader is effectively cornered.
“It’s a false pretext to attack United Nations forces and create a genuine incident,” she said of Ble Goude’s declaration.
The once-plush resort is protected by a small contingent of lightly armed former rebel fighters known as the New Forces and 800 UN troops equipped with armoured vehicles and re-supplied by helicopter.
It is surrounded by Gbagbo’s well-armed regulars, but Ouattara’s camp is more concerned about Ble Goude’s threat to send thousands of unarmed youths to storm the hotel.
The Ecowas meeting last Tuesday and Wednesday was attended by military chiefs from Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Togo, Niger and Nigeria.
Ghana has already announced it would not send any troops on the grounds that it has overstretched its capacity in peacekeeping operations elsewhere.
Ecowas has a standby troubleshooting force of 6,500 soldiers, which officials said is almost ready to deploy.
“This is the last resort but hopefully Gbagbo will be persuaded to hand over power politically without military cohesion,” Yerimah, the Nigerian defence spokesman, told AFP.
Both Gbagbo and Ouattara claim to have won last month’s Ivorian election, but only the latter has been recognised as president by the world community, including the Ecowas regional group and the UN. (AFP)
