Johannesburg — Nigeria confirmed Thursday that it has sent three fighter jets to Cote d'Ivoire and is standing by with troops that a minister said could eventually become part of a West African intervention force to help end the unrest that began a week ago.
The news came as the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) announced that an emergency heads of state summit would be held Sunday in the main Ivorian city, Abidjan. The meeting was originally scheduled for Saturday and then delayed until the following Saturday -- October 5 -- in Dakar, Senegal. An Ecowas spokesman said the changes in date and location were made "because of our increasing concern about the situation" in Cote d'Ivoire.
The prospect of other regional leaders gathered in Abidjan, rallying behind President Laurent Gbagbo would be a major boost for the embattled Ivorian leader, whose authority has been challenged in what the authorities are calling a failed coup d'etat.
A senior Nigerian government official, contacted by AllAfrica, confirmed his country's warplane deployment to Cote d'Ivoire. "That is correct. The real point is that the president of Cote d'Ivoire said he needed a kind of visible force to put the fear into the mob". But the official added "the aircraft have no ammunition on them, none at all. But they are there".
A Nigerian military presence in Cote d'Ivoire, bolstered by support from other West African countries, could act as a deterrent to the 750 rebel soldiers the government said seized two key cities in Cote d'Ivoire a week ago. The mutineers have since retained control in the centre and north of the country.
The dissidents are still holding the central city of Bouake, as well as Korhogo to the north, though they failed to capture Abidjan, which remains in government hands.
Nigeria's junior foreign minister, Dubem Onyia, told news agencies and later the BBC that Nigeria, Ghana, Togo and Senegal -- all Ecowas members -- had been approached with requests for assistance by Gbagbo's constitutionally elected government.
Onyia told Reuters that Nigerian and Ghanaian forces were being dispatched to Cote d'Ivoire because Ecowas countries were determined to uphold democracy in West Africa and that the deployment "was under the auspices of Ecowas". The Nigerian minister said: "Ecowas has decided that any government that has to be changed must be changed through the ballot box. We are acting to prop up the elected government in Ivory Coast". Onyia concluded that "Ecowas is not like the Ecowas of old, when it could bark and could not bite. Ecowas can bite".
This information was confirmed by the Ecowas executive secretary, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, who spent the day in Abidjan holding talks with Gbagbo and other Ivorian government officials. Repeating his mantra that unconstitutional or military takeovers are no longer acceptable in West Africa, Chambas said he had called the regional summit of Ecowas presidents in Abidjan for Sunday, so that the situation in Cote d'Ivoire could be dealt with urgently.
Speaking by telephone from the Togolese capital of Lome, Chambas told AllAfrica he had written to all 15 member states of the regional community for assistance in the current crisis in Cote d'Ivoire. He said he asked them "to respond to the Ivorian request to uphold peace and the stability of the legitimate government," until the heads of state convened. The summit is expected to consider a response that could include the deployment of the military wing of Ecowas, which is known as Ecomog.
Nigeria, the region's powerhouse with both the largest economy and the biggest military, has commanded and sent the majority of troops for the two major military interventions Ecomog has undertaken previously. The first was during the Liberian civil war from 1990 until elections in 1997. An Ecomog force was deployed the same year to Sierra Leone, and in 1999 on a brief mission during troubles in Guinea Bissau.
On Thursday, the Ivorian government declared all rebel-occupied areas a 'war zone'. The Nigerian Alpha jets, which landed in Cote d'Ivoire on Wednesday, could act as air support for loyalist Ivorian troops in their much-touted planned offensive against the mutineers.
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In a separate development, a Reuters correspondent reported seeing more than a hundred bodies at a military academy in Bouake. That discovery would increase the existing government casualty figure of at least 270 people killed. The news agency said the National Academy of Serving Non-Commissioned Officers was a focus of fierce fighting on Tuesday, when pro-government forces launched an attack on the city, which was repelled by the dissident troops.
Meanwhile, French troops continued to evacuate 1200 foreigners from Bouake in a rescue operation begun on Wednesday. The United States has advised all its nationals in Cote d'Ivoire to leave the country. A State Department notice, issued by the American Embassy in Abidjan, said "although it may seem calm now, we are currently evacuating Americans from trouble spots". It said airports remained open, but that Americans should take advantage of boarding flights out of Cote d'Ivoire before they became overbooked. A contingent of U.S. Special Forces will stay behind.
