Ivorian planes hit French; 8 killed-UN source

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06696910.htm

ABIDJAN, Nov 6 (Reuters) - French forces in Ivory Coast destroyed two Ivorian warplanes on Saturday after they hit a French target in the rebel-held town of Bouake, killing eight French soldiers, a United Nations official said.

"Military sources from the U.N. said that two Sukhoi (warplanes) belonging to the Ivorian army have just been destroyed by the French after these aircraft targeted and hit a French target," said Jean-Victor Nkolo, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast.

more

[CottonBear]

1. The Ivorians have warplanes and use them?

I didn't know they had an airforce. What are Sukhoi warplanes?

[makhno]

2. Here

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/row/su-25.htm

The government forces have reopened the conflict this past week, which leaves the French in an extremely unhappy situation as guarantors of the cease-fire between the government and the rebels. I'm thinking this must've been a mistake of some sort, since it'd be foolhardy for Gbagbo to openly challenge the French, who are already pissed he isn't abiding by the cease-fire.

[bigworld]

3. Sukhoi's

are old 1960s MiG-style jets from the USSR.

They apparantly used them to strafe some villages in which French peacekeepers were stationed. There's no way which the Ivorian air force could hold their own against the French.

[CottonBear]

6. Thanks for the info bigworld.

[Flagg]

4. Suicidal move from the Ivorian government.

[Kemet]

5. rogue officers maybe?

In any case, our soldiers there are between a rock and a hard place; pro-rebels don't want them there, accusing them to support the gvt, and the ivorian army are not happy with the imposed cease fire (obviously). Although there is a UN mandate, i think we should not be there, we have too many economic interests over there; it should be an african peace keeping force.

[Flagg]

7. Chirac orders retaliation, 9 French soldiers killed

ABIDJAN, Nov 6 (AFP) - Ivory Coast government warplanes carried out a devastating raid on a French army camp Saturday killing at least nine soldiers, prompting a French retaliation as the west African country slid closer back to civil war.
After the attack in which a US citizen was also reported killed and 23 people wounded, French President Jacques Chirac ordered the destruction of all government planes involved in ceasefire violations.
French forces blew up the two Ivorian warplanes in immediate retaliation for the attack, after they landed in the Ivory Coast's administrative capital Yamoussoukro.
Eight soldiers were killed in the attack and a ninth died later as a result of wounds.
France also ordered 300 more troops to Ivory Coast to buttress its 4,000-member peacekeeping force, as fighting broke out between French and Ivorian troops at Abidjan international airport, during which a French military transport plane was damaged.
Paris also scrambled three Mirage fighter jets from Chad to Libreville in Gabon.

http://www.ttc.org/200411062140.ia6leaa19893.htm

[NNN0LHI]

8. All for that Hershey candy bar we covet

http://www.seeingred.com/Copy/5.4_milt_pillage_ivory_coast.html

Capitalists in Britain and the United States, speculating on world cocoa production, have taken advantage of a civil war and poor harvests in Ivory Coast to drive up the price of cocoa beans to 17-year highs, raking in huge profits in October. Ivory Coast is the world’s largest cocoa producer, with exports of more than 1 million tons a year, providing some 40 percent of the global supply of cocoa.

With cocoa comprising about 10 percent of the cost of chocolate production, high cocoa prices and stagnant candy sales are squeezing the profits of the giants of the $13 billion chocolate industry, such as Hershey Foods Corp., Mars Inc., Nestle SA, and Kraft Foods. "We are working on tighter margins than we used to," said David Zimmer, secretary general of Caobisco, the European candy makers’ association.

Washington is vying with its imperialist rivals in Paris for control of the natural resources of Ivory Coast, a former French colony. One week after antigovernment soldiers launched a failed coup on September 19, the two powers sent hundreds of troops to the West African country under the guise of evacuating their own citizens. Paris has provided what it describes as "logistical support" to the Ivory Coast government, with more than 1,000 French soldiers sent there ostensibly to "police" a truce in effect since October 17.

Washington deployed some 200 U.S. troops, mostly Special Forces, to the capital of Ivory Coast. They are now "on standby" in neighboring Ghana.

more