French troops killed more than 30 Ivory Coast nationals and wounded at least 100 others in the ongoing crisis in the west African country, Ivorian parliament speaker Mamadou Coulibaly said on French public radio France Inter Sunday.
"In [the main cities of] Abidjan and Yamassoukro the French army killed more than 30 people and wounded more than 100, people who were unarmed, to avenge the blood of nine dead French soldiers," Coulibaly said.
Nine French troops died in an air raid by Ivory Coast warplanes and 30 were wounded Saturday in the central Ivorian city of Bouake.
French reinforcements were expected in Ivory Coast after continuing unrest overnight.
Meanwhile, angry mobs of thousands laid siege to a French military base in Ivory Coast's largest city yesterday and went house-to-house in search of French families, answering hard-liners' call to take to the streets after deadly violence erupted between France's forces and those of its former colony.
French military helicopters dropped percussion grenades throughout the night on mobs massing at bridges, the international airport and the military base in the commercial capital, Abidjan, French military spokesman Henry Aussavy said.
France remained newly in control of the international airport after destroying what it said was the entire Ivorian Air Force -- two Sukhoi warplanes and five helicopter gunships -- Saturday.
Destruction came in retaliation for the Ivorian Air Force's surprise bombing of a French peacekeeping position in the north, held by Ivorian rebels since civil war broke out in the world's top cocoa producer in September 2002.
Saturday's airstrike killed nine French troops and one American civilian, believed by American diplomats to be a missionary.
France and the UN Security Council, meeting in emergency session, demanded President Laurent Gbagbo restore order.
Ivorian leaders sounded defiance yesterday.
National Assembly President Mamadou Coulibaly, No. 2 under Gbagbo, accused French President Jacques Chirac of arming Ivory Coast's rebels, telling France's Inter radio "we have the feeling and we have the proof" of it.
Accusing France of "connivance with the rebels," Coulibaly demanded French troops "liberate the territory and then go."
Hardliners urged loyalists on to more uprisings.
"We ask you all to take to the streets," Ble Goude, a so-called youth leader in control of thousands of loyalist militia members, declared on state TV.
"Show France we are a sovereign state," another loyalist hard-liner, Genevieve Bro Grebe, head of a women's militia, declared. Fearful of attempts to overthrow Gbagbo, Grebe on state TV urged crowds to form a ``human shield'' around his presidential palace.
Militia leaders also called on loyalists to march on the airport and the French military base.
Thousands of loyalists were demonstrating in front of the military base at daybreak yesterday, Aussavy said.
Enraged at the French retaliation for the airstrike, mobs went door-to-door looking for foreign families, and looted and burned French businesses and at least two French schools.
"We are all terrified, and try to reassure each other," one French resident said by telephone from his home, speaking on condition he not be identified.
"We have been told by the embassy to stay at home ... It is a difficult situation to live through," the Frenchman said.
Numerous French families called French authorities in Ivory Coast overnight, saying their homes were being attacked and looted, Aussavy said.
There was no word of casualties among French civilians, he said.
Ivory Coast television overnight showed the bodies of five loyalists they said had been killed in Abidjan's violence, journalists said.
A loyalist leader, Eugene Djue, claimed in a telephone interview at least six dead among loyalist demonstrators, allegedly killed by the French. He claimed two girls had disappeared after jumping off a bridge to escape the French helicopters.
France took control of Abidjan's airport by late Saturday, saying it was securing it for any evacuations, after French and Ivory Coast troops traded gunfire on the tarmac.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS