Obasanjo says Nigeria may intervene in Cote d’Ivoire

Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo has written the senate saying the country may have to intervene in the conflict in Cote d’Ivoire to protect its citizens there, officials said on Thursday.

A top official of Nigeria’s upper legislative chamber told IRIN the letter was addressed to senate president, Pius Anyim. It informed the National Assembly the government was studying the situation in the fellow West African country closely and might intervene to protect millions of Nigerian nationals there if the situation deteriorates.

"There is no commitment to deploy troops on combat duty in Ivory Coast," Obasanjo was quoted as saying in the letter. "But I will seek Senate approval when the need arises."

The Nigerian government estimates that more than two million of its citizens are resident in Cote d’Ivoire.

Following the 19 September mutiny by a section of the country’s armed forces against the government of President Laurent Gbagbo, Nigeria had sent three military aircraft and a small contingent of troops to Cote d’Ivoire’s commercial capital, Abidjan. But the troops and aircraft have since returned with the government explaining it was an exploratory visit.

Nigeria had intervened in the past decade in civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone as the dominant power in the Economic Community of West African States regional intervention force known as ECOMOG.