ABUJA, Oct 11 (AFP) - Nigeria said Friday that the Ivory Coast
government has no choice but to back a west African peace plan and
angrily accused President Laurent Gbagbo's regime of "playing games"
with mediators.
   Junior foreign minister Dubem Onyia, who was Nigeria's
representative on a west African mission to broker a ceasefire
between Gbagbo's forces and rebels, said the Ivorian leader must
enter new negotiations.
   "He has no option," Onyia told reporters, "The only other option
is to go to war, which would do nobody any good."
   For more than three weeks rebel soldiers have been battling
Ivorian loyalist forces, splitting the country in two and leading it
to the brink of what the UN food aid agency said Friday would be a
"wide-scale humanitarian crisis".
   Ivory Coast's regional neighbours, under the aegis of the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), tried last week
to mediate a ceasefire and the start of talks between the warring
parties.
   At the weekend Gbagbo snubbed calls for him to sign a ceasefire
accord. On Friday, Onyia accused him of cynically exploiting the
peace mission to prepare an assault on the rebel held central
Ivorian city of Bouake.
   "Before we went there the government had made no contact with
the rebels. They didn't even know who they are or where they are,"
he said.
   "Because we were able to feel their pulse and were able to
identify them and made contact with them the government used it to
plan an attack on them. All the time the government was playing
games with us," he complained.
   "They were planning to see if they could crush them."
   As Onyia and his colleagues were leaving Ivory Coast at the
weekend after their stalled peace bid, government forces did launch
an assault on Bouake. They were repulsed by rebel forces after heavy
fighting in the city.
   The west African allies have vowed not to give up on their peace
plan, and negotiators are again planning to meet both parties, but
the humanitarian situation is worsening and the rebels have promised
an offensive of their own.

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