Army attacks Toulepleu

Loyalist forces on Wednesday attacked Cote d'Ivoire's western town of Toulepleu in a bid to dislodge rebels who have occupied the town since last weekend. "The offensive has continued to Toulepleu. There is fighting there now," Reuters quoted a military officer as saying. "It is a hilly region, which does not make it easy." It quoted rebels of the Movement for Justice and Peace (MPJ) as saying that the town had been attacked on Tuesday by one of the army's Mi-24 helicopter gunships. "Lots of civilians were killed," it quoted rebel Sergeant Bamba as saying. He told Reuters he was speaking from the outskirts of the western town of Man more than 650 km from the commercial capital Abidjan. Last Thursday, two new rebels groups - Ivorian Populaire Movement of the Great West (MPIGO) and Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ) occupied Danane and Man both in western Cote d'Ivoire and by the weekend they had occupied other towns of Toulepleu and Touba both in the west. French forces who have been monitoring a ceasefire brokered by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) signed by the main rebel MPCI and accepted by the government on 17 October, evacuated their nationals and other foreigners who lived in the new war zone. Meanwhile Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure arrived in Lome, Togo on Wednesday to brief the Ivorian talks mediator Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema on the outcome of his discussions on Tuesday with Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and his Burkina Faso counterpart Blaise Campaore. The presidents called for the rapid deployment of a regional peacekeeping force to replace French troops in Ivory Coast and "decided to take appropriate measures as soon as possible to reinforce a cessation of hostilities". They also "firmly condemned violence and exactions against the civilian Burkinabe, Malian and Ivorian populations," a joint statement said, adding that they would adhere to the ECOWAS mechanism of prevention, management and conflict resolution. According to Bakayoko Lassana, communications attaché for the Mouvement Patriotique de Côte d'Ivoire (MPCI) three representatives from the group were also slated to meet with President Toure on Wednesday. MPCI received a paper from the mediators on Tuesday which they are reviewing and are to make their comments. "We have been making proposals and the government delegation have only been making observations on our proposals," he said.