FRANCE/ IVORY COAST: Twelve French soldiers have been arrested for stealing nearly €100,000 from a bank they were supposed to be guarding in a rebel-held town in Ivory Coast, the French army said yesterday.
The troops were posted at a branch of the West African central bank (BCEAO) in Man, 450 km northwest of Abidjan, and were meant to secure it after a series of bank robberies by rebel fighters last year.
"The accused personnel took advantage of their posting at a branch of the BCEAO bank in Man to steal a sum of money," the French military in Ivory Coast, known as Licorne or Unicorn, said. A French army spokesman said the theft of 65 million CFA francs was thought to have taken place on Thursday or Friday. The soldiers were arrested and questioned in Abidjan by French gendarmes before being flown to Paris yesterday.
"For the moment, the soldiers will be subject to military sanctions while an inquiry is carried out by the French judiciary," Licorne spokesman Col Henry Aussavy said.
"We are dealing with these accusations very severely so that they do not tarnish the rest of our forces in the country." It is the second time French soldiers, who are in their former colony to police a truce and no-weapons zone running across the country, have been accused of stealing money from central bank branches.
A French soldier was sent back to Paris to face criminal charges in January after being found with a large amount of cash thought to have come from the central bank's branch in the rebel stronghold of Bouake.