Second raid on central bank foiled in rebel-held north

A large force of armed men tried unsuccessfully to break into a branch of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) in the northern rebel-held town of Korhogo, but they were beaten off by local rebel commanders after a heavy gunfight, eyewitnesses said on Tuesday. The attempted break-in at Korhogo late on Sunday night followed a similar attack on the branch of the BCEAO in the western rebel-held town of Man 24 hours earlier and an assault on the BECEAO branch in the rebel capital Bouake on 25 September in which 50 billion CFA (US $83 million) in banknotes was stolen. Three eyewitness to the Korhogo attack told IRIN in the nearby town of Ouangolodougou, close to the border with Mali and Burkina Faso, that the attackers were rebel fighters loyal to an un-named warlord who was currently outside Cote d'Ivoire. They said the would-be bank robbers arrived in the town from Bouake aboard a convoy of 10 pick-up trucks and four-wheel drive vehicles. However, they were driven off by forces loyal to two local rebel commanders known as "Kosovo" and "Adams." Nobody was killed in the exchange of fire and local people jeered as the attackers drove off, the eyewitnesses said Kosovo told IRIN on Monday that he did not want French peacekeeping troops coming to help restore order in Korhogo as they had done in Bouake and Man after the bank raids there. "We do not need the French army because we can take care of things by ourselves," he said. Officials of the Dakar-based BCEAO, which controls the CFA franc currency used by Cote d'Ivoire and most other Francophone countries in West Africa, were not available for comment in either Dakar or Abidjan. The rebels, who are now officially known as "The New Forces," have occupied the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire since the country erupted into civil war in September last year. They signed a peace agreement with President Laurent Gbagbo in January and joined a broad-based government of national reconciliation in April, but have until now refused to disarm. The rebels suspended their participation in the peace process on 23 September, accusing Gbagbo of failing to delegate meaningful authority to government ministers so that they could actually run the departments they headed. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has launched a diplomatic initiative to bring the two sides together again and prevent the stand-off from degenerating into renewed conflict.