ABIDJAN, Sept 22 (AFP) - The home of a key opposition leader was set alight
overnight in continuing violence following a coup bid in Ivory Coast prompting
France to send troops to its former west African colony, officials said on
Sunday.
AFP correspondents saw smoke and flames billowing from the residence of
opposition leader Alassane Ouattara.
"Mr Ouattara's residence, in the upmarket Cocody district of Abidjan, was
set alight by elements of the security forces there," Aly Coulibaly, spokesman
for Ouattara's Rally of Republicans (RDR) party told AFP by telephone.
Ouattara, 60, who served as prime minister from 1990 to 1993, has sought
refuge at the French embassy in Abidjan with the approval of Ivorian
authorities.
Outtara said: "The German ambassador told me that it (Ouattara's home) was
on the point of collapsing".
The opposition leader said that the arson attack "could only be the work of
the security forces because there is a curfew in place. I called the fire
brigade but so far no one has arrived".
Ouattara confirmed that he was still staying in the French embassy, where
he has taken refuge since the rebel uprising which began on Thursday.
With the country's second city, Bouake, in central Ivory Coast, and the
northern town of Korhogo still under rebel control and tensions high in
Abidjan, France dispatched troop reinforcements to ensure the security of
French citizens and the international community, the French army chief of
staff said early Sunday.
More than 100 reinforcements arrived in the west African nation aboard a
transport plane, accompanied by helicopters, from other French bases in Africa.
"Under precautionary measures decided by the French authorities to assure
the security of French citizens and the international community, the army
chief-of-staff has reinforced the military unit stationed in Abidjan," the
army said in a statement.
France already had a 600-strong contingent in the main Ivorian city of
Abidjan. It also has bases in Chad, Senegal, Gabon and Djibouti, with a total
of some 6,000 troops.
With an estimated 20,000 French citizens living in Ivory Coast, officials
in Paris said the reinforcements were being sent in as an implicit message to
rebels that they will take quick action in the event of an attack on the
French community.
French officials also made it clear that the deployment did not mean France
intended to intervene in the crisis in any way, which the French defence
minister, Michele Alliot-Marie called a "purely internal affair".
In a statement on Friday, the defence minister added, "it appears that
there is no threat at all" to the French community or other Westerners.
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