LIBERIA: Ivory Coast's army yesterday accused Liberian troops of fighting alongside rebels in the west of the country as France worked to clinch a peace deal for its war-ravaged former colony at talks near Paris.
"The participation of regular Liberian forces alongside rebels is now a certainty," Ivory Coast army spokesman Lieut-Col Jules Yao Yao announced.
It was the first time that Abidjan had directly accused neighbouring Liberia, also grappling with a protracted rebel war in its own territory, of involvement in the conflict, an allegation denied by the Monrovia government.
Col Yao Yao also charged that two rebel groups, the Ivorian Popular Movement of the Far West (MPIGO) and the Movement of Justice and Peace (MJP), were behind Wednesday's attack in the western town of Toulepleu, in which at least 29 people were killed.
"The involvement of the MPIGO and the MJP in these attacks appears obvious, because the two movements often use Liberian mercenaries and looters to help prop up their rebellion in the west of the country," Col Yao Yao said.
The MPIGO and the MJP emerged in western Ivory Coast in late November and quickly forged an alliance. They signed a ceasefire with the Ivorian government just before the start last week of French-brokered peace talks.
Sgt Felix Doh, a leader of the MPIGO, "categorically" denied that his men were involved in the Toulepleu attack.
The spokesman for the French army in Ivory Coast said yesterday that groups of "uncontrolled" fighters from Liberia had entered western Ivory Coast and "unleashed a climate of violence."