FRANCE: French president Jacques Chirac vowed yesterday to keep his troops in Ivory Coast to prevent the former colony from sliding into anarchy or fascism, and condemned the "questionable regime" of the country's president.
France continued the evacuation of its citizens and other foreigners from the country yesterday, following last week's anti-French rioting by supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo.
Mr Gbagbo criticised French troops for using excessive force in protecting French citizens. At least 27 people were killed, virtually all of them Ivorian, and 900 injured, in the violent demonstrations.
Mr Chirac criticised the "questionable regime" of Mr Gbagbo. "We do not want to let a system develop that could lead to anarchy or a regime of a fascist nature," Mr Chirac told a student forum in the southern city of Marseille.
Mr Gbagbo appears isolated and refused to attend an African summit on the crisis in Nigeria yesterday. The heads of Gabon, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Senegal met with Nigerian leader Mr Olusegun Obasanjo, who is chair of the African Union, in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, yesterday.
Apparently fearing an overthrow attempt by France, Mr Gbagbo has kept his youth militia manning roadblocks around his residence and over the weekend sacked his popular army chief-of- staff.
He replaced him with Colonel Philippe Mangou, who oversaw the assault on the rebel-held north just over a week ago which shattered an 18-month ceasefire. During that campaign Ivorian aircraft killed nine French peacekeepers and one American aid worker in a bombing raid.
This caused an unparalleled confrontation between France, which responded by destroying the Ivorian air force consisting of two jets and five helicopters.
Since Thursday last more than 5,000 expatriates have fled the country.