September 22, 2002	Sunday	Rajab 14, 1423

ABIDJAN, Sept 21: Ivory Coast soldiers on Saturday took up positions for a “ferocious” attack on renegade troops holding the key city of Bouake as the rebels roped in young civilians to fight with them and warned of a crushing response.

Informed sources said a convoy of armoured vehicles carrying senior military officials on Saturday left Abidjan and was rolling towards Bouake, the country’s second city, still held by mutinous soldiers two days after a failed, but bloody coup bid.

They gave no details. The number of reinforcements already sent to Ivory Coast’s political capital Yamoussoukro in the Bouake region and due to move on to the town was not clear either.

Defence Minister Moise Lida Kouassi said: “We will engage in a ferocious battle” on Saturday in Bouake, about 400 kms north of Abidjan.

“Our goal is to liberate the country no matter what the cost.”

Thursday’s failed coup bid left at least 270 people dead and 300 injured in the economic capital of Abidjan, an Ivorian military source said on Friday.

The uprising broke out simultaneously in Abidjan, Bouake and the northern town of Korhogo. The rebellion was quashed in Abidjan but Korhogo, near the border with Burkina Faso, was also in the hands of rebels on Saturday .

Residents from Bouake said over telephone that the rebels on Saturday went around the town conscripting young men to fight with them. The new recruits were given arms and uniforms.

A resident of Bouake on Saturday said: “There was quite a bit of fire at night but things have quietened down in the morning. The rebels are in full control.”

A father of two, who gave his name as Timothy K., sounded desperate.

“I am making an SOS call to our president. He must negotiate. We who are in Bouake fear for our lives.

“We’ve started running out of food, medicines. The ranks of the rebels are swelling. Till now they have been all right, but one fears what will happen if they are attacked.”

Kouassi had on Friday said the army would “clean up” Bouake by nightfall, but no attack then took place. Mutineers there have taken the country’s sports minister hostage and he has said they want to negotiate, but officials in Abidjan ruled out negotiations.

Army rebels in Korhogo on Saturday warned the government of drastic consequences if they were attacked.

“We are calm. The government will have to take into account what the consequences (of a counter-attack) will be,” Sergeant Major Prosper Kouadio, speaking on behalf of the rebels, said.

Kouadio did not reveal how many men were holding the town or the number or specifics of their arms and ammunition.

He also denied speculation that troops had come in from neighbouring Burkina Faso.

“Why point a finger at other countries when there is an uprising? With 700 men one can revolt without any external help,” he said.

The rebels say they are a group of some 750 men facing demobilization in coming months and have launched the uprising to demand their retention in the military.

President Laurent Gbagbo cut short a state visit to Italy and returned Friday to deal with the crisis, which he has attributed to “terrorists”, while hinting that a foreign power could be behind it.

In his televised address, he said the rebels had heavy weaponry that did not belong to the former French colony’s army.

“The arms and the targets show that they want to change the regime of the Ivory Coast. The Ivory Coast has been attacked. The hour of battle is here!” Gbagbo said.

“This is not some display of anger by a few soldiers, this is an attempted coup d’etat,” he said.

Gbagbo had implicitly accused foreign countries, notably Burkina Faso, of being behind another abortive coup bid in January 2001.—AFP