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.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS