IVORY COAST: Rebel soldiers in Ivory Coast have agreed a 48-hour ceasefire to allow French troops to get hundreds of foreigners out of cities where they are trapped by a bloody military uprising.
Nigeria and Ghana yesterday put soldiers on stand by and agreed to send warplanes as key West African neighbours rallied to help Ivory Coast put down a week-long rebellion which has increasingly taken on the dimensions of a civil war.
Former colonial power France and the US have both sent troops to help get their citizens to safety in the capital Yamoussoukro and main city of Abidjan.
France said it would evacuate foreigners who wanted to leave Ivory Coast's second city of Bouake after the rebels agreed a ceasefire in the city battered by some of the fiercest bloodshed of the crisis.
"This ceasefire is just to allow the evacuation. We have agreed this with the French, not with the enemies," a rebel spokesman said.
Rebel troops launched attacks in three key Ivorian cities a week ago. While loyalists dislodged them from the main city of Abidjan, they have kept control of Bouake and Korhogo.
- (Reuters)