Accra — Fresh developments in the conflict in Cote d'Ivoire were reported on Thursday, with the appearance of a second group opposed to the government of President Laurent Gbagbo.
A spokesman for the Ivorian Popular Movement (MPI), close to the late former military leader, General Robert Guei killed on the first day of the current uprising in mid-September, told Radio France International (RFI) his group was determined to "liberate all of northwest" Cote d'Ivoire.
The news coincided with reports of the sound of gunfire heard in the northwestern town of Danane, which is located near the border with Liberia and is nominally under government control.
Interviewing on RFI on Thursday, the MPI spokesman, Felix Doe, confirmed that his troops had launched the attack in Danane and were determined to avenge the murder of Guei, Cote d'Ivoire's first successful coup leader in December 1999.
But Doe denied any links between his MPI and the Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI), which launched the rebellion against Gbagbo more than two months ago. "For now we don't have any close relations with the MPCI. But we intend to march to Abidjan; it's just a question of time," said Doe, referring to the coastal southern metropolis and Ivorian commercial capital, which loyalist forces held during the September coup attempt and still control.
Facing this new challenge to its authority, the government has gone back on the offensive because of renewed MPCI rebel activity, Gbagbo's army spokesman, Jules Yao Yao, announced on national television Wednesday. The rebels have accused the authorities of using intimidating tactics and helicopter gun ships.
France, the former colonial power whose forces are currently monitoring the ceasefire between loyalist and rebel troops, has agreed to verify the rival claims. Lieutenant-Colonel Ange-Antoine Leccia, the spokesman in Cote d'Ivoire of the French military Operation Unicorn, was quoted widely Wednesday saying they would investigate the mutual allegations.
The French have not yet reported any serious violation of the truce signed six weeks ago, which they offered to supervise, keeping the two sides apart until the planned arrival in Cote d'Ivoire of West African peacekeepers. But the climate remains volatile and uncertain, with the government and the rebels both reported to be re-arming and talking about a return to arms if peace talks fail.
On Sunday, the MPCI accused neighbouring Ghana of providing up to 100 troops to Gbagbo's army allowing its territory to be used as a rear base by Ivorian loyalist forces.
Reports Thursday, quoting Leccia, spoke of two columns of up to 300 loyalist troops advancing on the town of Vavoua in the west. "Some were English-speaking and some were white," said one report, giving credence to rebel claims, and partial government confirmation, that non-Ivorians have been recruited to help Gbagbo's army. Among the hired guns are said to be South African mercenaries, with technicians for the helicopter gun ships and other military hardware reported to come from former eastern European states.
Meanwhile, stop-start Cote d'Ivoire negotiations in Togo, brokered by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), appear to be making slow progress in the capital, Lome, where Ivorian government and rebel delegations have been meeting for the past month.
The French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, was this week dispatched by Paris to West Africa to try to jumpstart the negotiations in Togo. On his whistle-stop trip, stressing the urgency of a peaceful negotiated settlement to the Cote d'Ivoire crisis, de Villepin travelled from Lome to Abidjan, then north to the neighbouring Malian capital, Bamako, and onto central Africa to talk to President Omar Bongo of Gabon in the capital, Libreville.
His last scheduled stop was Dakar, Senegal, to see President Abdoulaye Wade, the current Ecowas chairman. "All regional heads of state are conscious of the risks and the implications" of the conflict, de Villepin told RFI.
Positive noises out of Lome predicted the imminent signing of a peace accord in Togo, but observers are not holding their breath, awaiting concrete evidence of progress.
In a further development, de Villepin announced late Wednesday that the main Ivorian opposition leader, Alassane Dramane Ouattara, who took refuge in the French Embassy residence at the start of the rebellion, had left the premises. Ouattara, accompanied by his wife Dominique, was later reported to have arrived in Gabon en route, it was said, to another unspecified Africa country.
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Many Ivorians blame Ouattara - a former prime minister - for the current crisis in their country, accusing the opposition leader of supporting the rebels. A Muslim and a northerner, like many of the dissident troops, Ouattara's nationality has been challenged in court and led to his being disqualified from the 2000 presidential poll, which Gbagbo won. His detractors say Ouattara is from Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire's northern neighbour, which has been fingered by the Abidjan authorities of involvement in the rebellion.
Ouattara's continued presence in the French residence, with the full knowledge of Gbagbo's government, led to a violent demonstration by angry mobs against the French military base in Abidjan last month, demanding that Paris "hand over the man responsible for the rebellion". The Ivorian leader acknowledged to reporters that the Ouattara matter was a " note of discord" between Paris and his country.
Burkinabe and other foreigners have been the targets of angry recrimination in Cote d'Ivoire. They have been attacked and their homes razed by men in military uniform as well as civilians. Human rights' movements have appealed to both government and rebel troops to end summary executions and the arbitrary detention of their adversaries.
