Abidjan — As the Senegalese foreign minister began efforts to jumpstart West African mediation Saturday to end the three-week conflict in Cote d'Ivoire, there were reports of heavy gunfire in the country's premier cocoa-producing town of Daloa in the late afternoon.
Daloa is situated 250 miles (400km) northwest of the economic capital, Abidjan. Residents in the cocoa town reported hearing loud explosions and bursts of gunfire, which subsided as the nighttime curfew approached. Rebel forces were reported to have moved close to Daloa earlier in the week.
Before the reports of firing in Daloa, Senegal's Cheikh Tidiane Gadio flew by French military helicopter to the central rebel-held city of Bouake. Senegal currently chairs the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). Gadio's mission was to continue a West African peace initiative to broker a deal between the government of President Laurent Gbagbo and the mutineers in Cote d'Ivoire.
After a two-hour meeting with rebel representatives, Gadio said he was encouraged by the talks on Saturday. "We put forward a number of proposals and ideas. They did not reject them. They said they were going to discuss them among themselves," the Senegalese envoy told journalists. Gadio added that he expected to return to Bouake on Sunday to continue the discussions.
The mutineers also appeared satisfied with the talks with Gadio. A rebel commander, Cherif Ousmane, concluded that the meeting was 'positive'. Efforts last week to agree a truce between Gbagbo's government and the insurgents faltered after the Ivorian government declined to sign it last Sunday.
Gbagbo later told the nation that agreeing a ceasefire, before the rebels surrendered their arms, would be tantamount to giving them legal status which he was not prepared to do. The mutineers vowed that they would not lay down their weapons. Government and rebel pre-conditions for the current round of negotiations have not been made public, but analysts predict that finding common ground between the rival camps may be tricky.
Loyalist troops began an offensive against the rebels in Bouake, the day after the regional peace mission collapsed, but again failed to capture the city. The mutineers accused Gbagbo of negotiating in bad faith, saying that he had only agreed to talk to them this week because his troops had failed in their all-out assault to try to regain control of the city.
The rebels soldiers have, on different occasions, demanded the resignation of Gbagbo, the army chief, General Mathias Doue, and Defence Minister Moise Lida Kouassi. Late Saturday, state radio announced that the Defence Minister had been relieved of his portfolio.
Lida Kouassi was reportedly reassigned to duties as a Minister of State in the presidency. Analysts described this as a demotion for the man who easily had the highest profile during the initial stages of the coup, when Gbagbo was out of the country on an official visit to Italy. The army's performance, though widely praised by patriotic Ivorians and the government, has been judged woeful by military experts in several instances.
The Interior Minister, Emile Boga Doudou, was killed on the first day of the unrest.
It will be up to West African mediators, starting with Gadio, to try to convince both sides that peace, not war, must be their priority. The Ecowas executive secretary, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, was reported to have returned to Abidjan on Saturday for more mediation talks.
There has been growing pressure on Gbagbo's government to agree a truce, from within the region and from western powers. All are nervous that the bloody unrest in Cote d'Ivoire could explode and spread to other countries in West Africa.
France, the former colonial power, and the United States have both spoken of their deep concern and urged a negotiated settlement. Washington said it feared military 'meltdown' in the world's number one cocoa-producing country, where the major harvest and exports are seriously threatened, raising international market prices for the commodity to 17-year highs.
A number of the rebel commanders -- many of whom originate from predominantly Muslim northern Cote d'Ivoire -- have complained that they were being squeezed out of the army and their part of the country marginalized in favour of the largely Christian south.
They have called for justice and equity for all Ivorians and fresh elections to replace the contested presidential poll of 2000, in which Gbagbo came to power after a tussle with the then military leader, General Robert Guei. Guei was killed at the start of the September 19 coup.
The main opposition leader and former prime minister, Alassane Dramane Ouattara, a northern Muslim whose Ivorian nationality was called into question, was barred from standing in the presidential poll, which Gbagbo won. Ouattara has taken refuge at the French Embassy residence since the unrest began. Ouattara's Rally of Republicans (RDR) party spokesman, Aly Coulibaly, was detained on Friday and released 24 hours later, after questioning in Abidjan by paramilitary gendarmes.
Civilians took advantage of a lull in fighting on Saturday to continue fleeing Bouake, by foot. Foreign television images showed weary, frightened and hungry women, carrying fractious babies and young children, exhausted by miles of walking along bush tracks. Some had their belongings piled on their heads as they escaped the fighting and confusion in Bouake.
Reporters in the city said many of those desperate to leave Bouake were from southern tribes, including Gbagbo's Bete and the Baoule. These Ivorians are more likely to support the government and possibly incur the displeasure of the rebels, whose ranks are dominated by northern ethnic groups.
Hundreds of pro-Gbagbo Bouake residents were reported to have taken to the streets in a premature celebration on Monday night, when state radio announced that the city had been 'liberated' by loyalist forces. This proved false. These people may now fear possible retribution from rebels or their sympathisers, who would be able to identify those who came out in support of the president and the army.
Food and other essential commodities were reported to be scarce in Bouake. The United Nations estimated that up to 150,000 people -- a quarter of the city's population -- had left since the outbreak of fighting.
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On Friday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned of a looming humanitarian tragedy in Cote d'Ivoire if the conflict continued. "All the ingredients are present for a large-scale humanitarian crisis, through a massive displacement of people in the country and possible outflow of immigrant workers into neighbouring countries," said the WFP.
The UN agency added that the situation in Cote d'Ivoire risked degenerating to levels witnessed in the Great Lakes region of central and eastern Africa. Millions have been killed there in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in conflicts in Rwanda and Burundi.
In Cote d'Ivoire, hundreds of immigrant workers from neighbouring countries -- as well as refugees from the wars across the border in Liberia and Sierra Leone -- have been made homeless. Some were forced out of their accommodation by hostile locals, who continue to accuse 'foreigners' of being behind the coup. Gbagbo originally blamed the rebellion on unnamed neighbouring states, sparking attacks against members of Cote d'Ivoire's large immigrant community.
Up to a third of population is reported to be from other countries in the region.
In his nationwide televised address Tuesday, the president appealed to his compatriots to stop targeting immigrants. Shanty-towns in the main city Abidjan, which are home mainly to foreign workers and poorer Ivorians, have been set alight and razed. And, despite Gbagbo's call for tolerance, there have been reports of more harassment and xenophobia this week.
