Ivorian Air Force Allowed to Rebuild

U.N. and French forces have agreed to let Ivory Coast repair its fleet of crippled military aircraft after the army pledged not to use its warplanes to resume hostilities, officials said Saturday.

On French President Jacques Chirac’s orders, French troops in the West African country inflicted heavy damage on Ivory Coast’s small fleet of warplanes and helicopter gunships after nine French peacekeepers were killed in Ivorian airstrikes on Nov. 6.

The U.N. mission in Ivory Coast, known as ONUCI, “has agreed that the Ivorian army will bring its aircraft from [the capital] Yamoussoukro to Abidjan under ONUCI supervision,” said Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the 6,240-strong U.N. force in the former French colony. “It’s the planes damaged in November. The helicopters will be able to fly again as long as they are not armed.”

A French army spokesman said French troops in the country were also part of the agreement with the Ivorian army. The French number 5,000 and are there, along with the U.N., to police a buffer zone cutting the country roughly in half.

The crippling of the Ivorian air force by the French triggered days of anti-French riots in the principal city of Abidjan, forcing more than 8,000 foreigners, mainly French nationals, to flee the country.

Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa grower, has been split in two since civil war erupted in 2002.

A series of government bombing raids on the rebel-held north in November broke a cease-fire that had been in place since May 2003, dealing a blow to an already shaky peace process.

The Ivorian army said the decision to bring the aircraft to Abidjan was in line with an agreement to pull heavy weapons farther away from the front line.