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Τρίτη 5 Απριλίου 2011

French forces take over Abidjan airport


French forces have taken over the airport in Abidjan as forces loyal to Cote d'Ivoire's presidential rivals continue to battle for control of the country's main city. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/04/20114215401513945.html

Reporting the French intervention, state television urged the city's residents to mobilise and protect Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president. The channel also accused Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, of wanting to engage in genocide in the West African country.
Paris called for French citizens in Abidjan to assemble together without delay, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said on Sunday.

France is mulling a possible evacuation of its 12,000 citizens who live in the country because of the fighting.

"[Sarkozy] has decided that all French citizens in Abidjan should be grouped together without delay to ensure their protection," the French president's office said.

Gerard Longuet, the French defence minister, said on Sunday evening that the question of evacuation would be settled within hours.

"We will not expose French people to being hostages or indirect victims of confrontation between these two forces," Longuet said in an interview on French television LCI.
"Alert, alert... The French army is occupying since last night the airport of Felix Houphouet Boigny," the caption read over images of Gbagbo that were aired late on Saturday.

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