Rebel clashes ahead of Gbagbo speech, UN visit

Cote d’Ivoire rebel leader Guillaume Soro survived an assassination attempt during clashes between rival rebel factions, his supporters said on Monday, as President Laurent Gbagbo prepared to address the nation about plans to revive the stalled peace process. A statement from Soro’s New Forces rebel movement said “a heavily armed contingent” had attacked two camps in the northern town of Korhogo as well as a convoy carrying Soro back to the rebel stronghold of Bouake on Sunday. Humanitarian and rebel sources in Korhogo and Bouake told IRIN that Soro's supporters were fighting those of Ibrahim Coulibaly, known by the initials “IB”, who lives in France but is challenging Soro for the rebel leadership. “For us, it was an assassination attempt,” Amadou Kone, a Soro aide, told IRIN. “Preliminary investigations clearly indicate the involvement of President Gbagbo and Guinean President Lansana Conte who got inside help from people close to IB,” he added. An official at the presidential office, laughed off the very suggestion when contacted by IRIN on Monday. A humanitarian source said fighting had begun in Korhogo around 1900 GMT on Sunday, continuing into the early hours of Monday morning. Pre-dawn gunshots had also been fired in Bouake, the New Forces stronghold. The AFP news agency reported that the Bouake clashes had killed at least 11 people and injured about 20. Calm had returned to both towns on Monday, the day before a visit from a United Nations Security Council delegation. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry of the United Kingdom told reporters in New York on Friday that the Council would “convey a fairly tough message on the need for all parties to live up to their responsibilities and to keep the national reconciliation process on track.” Cote d’Ivoire, the world’s largest cocoa producer, has been split into a rebel-held north and government-controlled south ever since a failed coup attempt on Gbagbo in September 2002. A peace accord was hammered out last year but has looked increasingly fragile with Gbagbo sacking three rebel ministers in May and clashes erupting on the frontline earlier this month. The latest flare-up happened as Gbagbo returned from a Sunday summit in the Nigerian capital Abuja, where he had been meeting his counterparts from Ghana, Togo and Nigeria. Gbagbo said he would address the nation in the coming days to announce decisions taken at the meeting. The presidency has refused to officially comment on the content of Gbagbo’s declaration. However a source close to the presidency said it would be a reconciliatory speech “to announce new negotiations with the G7” - a coalition of opposition and rebel ministers. Comprising the four main opposition parties in parliament and the rebel New Forces movement, the G7 walked out of the power-sharing government after scores of people were killed by security forces and pro-government militias who supressed a banned demonstration for peace at the end of March.