Foreign powers continue to meddle in Africa as civil conflict erupts again in Ivory Coast, writes Gamal Nkrumah Emotions are running high in Ivory Coast, as the country, once West Africa's wealthiest and most economically dynamic nation, is plunged back into a bitter civil war pitting southerners against northerners, and Christians against Muslims. As the conflict revives, so neighbouring nations are finding themselves drawn in against their will. Ivory Coast's northern neighbours, in particular, are sympathetic to the cause of the armed opposition groups based in the north of the country with whom they have close ethnic, cultural and religious affinities. Foreign powers, most notably France and Israel, are also being drawn in. Despite decades of independence, Paris is still able to deploy overwhelming political as well as military force in its former African colonies. However, whereas in the past many francophone African leaders have been only too happy to be saved by French troops when the knife was at their throat, today most of them look to the United States for their salvation. France has been given a clear mandate by the United Nations to secure peace in its former -- and most lucrative -- African colony, a role which has drawn fierce criticism from the Ivorian government. President Laurent Gbagbo has openly accused the French of siding with the rebels and turned, in desperation, to Israel for help. With Israeli military and intelligence assistance, the Ivorian government forces were beginning to gain the upper hand, when the tide turned against them earlier this month. On 4 November, Ivorian government aircraft began to bombard northern territory held by the rebels. On 6 November, however, a government air strike hit a French military base near the demarcation line, leaving nine French soldiers dead. The French retaliation was swift and devastating: in the space of a few minutes, they destroyed the entire Ivorian airforce. French policy-makers justified their action by arguing that the Ivorian government forces would not have staged such a daring attack on the armed insurrectionists alone, thus risking open conflict with the French. Only the Israelis could therefore have been behind the offensive. No sooner had the world's leading producer of cocoa vowed to rebuild its air force, than the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a French-drafted resolution imposing an arms embargo on the Ivory Coast. Meanwhile, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz conceded that Israeli digital recording and monitoring systems for military intelligence were being extensively used by the Ivory Coast government forces. According to the French media, Israeli mercenaries have directed much of the recent fighting, and the unmanned aircraft that killed nine French soldiers was an Israeli drone. French daily Le Monde reported that 46 Israeli advisers are currently operating an eavesdropping and intelligence gathering centre in the country. Beside these mercenaries, the prime beneficiaries of the war in Ivory Coast include a number of top Israeli arms firms. SIBAT, the Foreign Defence Assistance and Export Department of the Israeli Ministry of Defence, has sold the Ivorian government arms and military equipment. Elbit Systems, based in Haifa, has provided four upgraded Puma helicopters, one of which was destroyed last week during the French bombardment of Ivorian air force bases. Another Israeli company, Aeronautics Defence Systems, also sold Ivory Coast two Aerostar drones. But this supply chain should not be interpreted as one-sided support. The notorious Israeli arms dealer Moshe Rothschild is purportedly making a killing in the Ivory Coast selling both sides in the conflict arms and ammunition. Without the recent French military intervention, the Israeli drones seemed set to change the course of the war. With the Ivorian government forces now in retreat, a week of anti-French riots ensued in the country's largest city and principal port, Abidjan. Supporters of president Gbagbo took to the streets, assaulting foreigners on sight and destroying their property. Some 4,000 out of 5,500 inmates in the main prison in Abidjan took advantage of the chaos to escape. These hardened criminals soon joined the so-called "Young Patriots" militiamen, who are allied with the ruling party. Together they spearheaded the widespread looting and destruction of mainly French property across the city. The Red Cross estimates that the clashes in Ivory Coast's commercial capital, Abidjan, left at least 1,000 people wounded. On Saturday, Gbagbo dismissed the head of his armed forces and replaced him with Colonel Philippe Mangou who led the latest offensive in the north of the country. Gbagbo blames France for the current Ivorian crisis. "At the start of the crisis I asked for two helicopters," Gbagbo said. "If they had given them to me, the war would have been over in two days." Gbagbo claims that the armed opposition groups are backed by France and working in tandem with Ivory Coast's northern neighbours to siphon off the country's wealth. "Since they occupied part of the national territory, the rebels have opened offices for the sale of Ivorian diamonds in neighbouring countries. For two years now, the rebels have been looting and selling our harvests of cocoa, coffee and cotton in neighbouring countries," Gbagbo stressed. French President Jacques Chirac promptly refuted Gbagbo's claims. He explained the French decision to intervene militarily as prompted by the desire to save the country from devastation and dissolution. "We do not want to allow a system to develop that would only lead to anarchy, or a regime of a fascist nature," the French president warned. Chirac went on to refer to Gbagbo's government as a "questionable regime". In sharp contrast, African leaders are trying to adopt a more conciliatory method to diffuse the tensions. In a flurry of diplomatic activity, South African President Thabo Mbeki flew to Ivory Coast last Tuesday for talks with his Ivorian counterpart. Gbagbo then flew back with Mbeki last Thursday to meet Ivorian opposition leaders now assembled in South Africa. Not to be outdone by the South African mediation efforts, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo summoned six African heads of state to an emergency summit to discuss the Ivorian crisis. Gbagbo declined to go to Abuja, but dispatched instead Speaker Mamadou Koulibaly, widely regarded as a hardliner, to represent the Ivorian government at the Abuja summit. Once a show piece of African political stability and economic prosperity, Ivory Coast has fast been sliding into political chaos and economic collapse. In 2003, France brokered a deal between the Ivorian government and the New Forces, commonly referred to as the Marcoussis power-sharing accords. But the Marcoussis accords are now in shambles. On 29 September, the Ivorian parliament failed to meet a deadline for the political reforms it had promised to enact. On 15 October, the New Forces retaliated by ignoring the deadline set for their disarmament, and on 28 October, they withdrew their ministers from the Ivorian government of national unity. The main demand of the New Forces is the amendment of Article 35 of the Ivorian constitution. This article stipulates that all presidential candidates must be not only of Ivorian nationality, but also of "pure Ivorian stock" -- that is born to Ivorian mothers. Introduced as part of a constitutional revision in 2000, this rule effectively eliminates 40 per cent of the population from standing for the highest office. However, at the time, the move was interpreted as specifically intended to block the presidential ambitions of the popular former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara. It was Henri-Konan Bédié, who succeeded Houphouet-Boigny as president in 1993, who first launched the concept of "Ivority", or Ivorian ethnic purity, as a means of dividing his opponents and thus consolidating his hold on power. Successive regimes, most of whom came to power through a coup d'etat, have continued to use xenophobic rhetoric and discriminatory legal measures to mask the country's true economic problems.
