A drive to disarm fighters in Ivory Coast was in jeopardy Friday, with rebels backing away from the plan just hours after President Laurent Gbagbo announced it was imminent.
| "Nah. We ain't done yet..." |
Gbagbo had declared a Dec. 15 start date for nationwide disarmament, meant to secure peace after a nine-month civil war. The announcement Thursday night was enough to disperse mobs of angry pro-government activists who had maintained a four-day siege of the main French army base in Abidjan, the commercial capital of the West African nation. The loyalist protests, at times violent, demanded French and West African peacekeepers pull away from cease-fire lines, allowing the government to reopen attacks on rebels. Gbagbo spoke in the capital, Yamoussoukro, after meeting with rebel officials and peacekeepers deployed along a buffer zone dividing the government-held south from the rebel-held north. On Friday, however, rebel spokesman Antoine Beugre said there was no disarmament deal. "It's not been decided," Beugre said, saying top rebel leaders had not been present at the talks. The rebel leaders would have to review the pact before making a final decision on it, he said. |