African leaders back Ivory Coast arms embargo

AFRICAN leaders have backed an arms embargo and other immediate UN sanctions against Ivory Coast, isolating President Laurent Gbagbo’s hard-line government even further in its deadly confrontation with its former colonial ruler, France.

As a French-led evacuation of Ivory Coast builds to one of Africa’s largest, French President Jacques Chirac denounced Mr Gbagbo’s “questionable regime” - and said France would not tolerate much more. Presidents from Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo and Gabon, meeting in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, yesterday backed a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for an arms embargo, a travel ban and asset freezes against anyone blocking peace in Ivory Coast.

The arms embargo “should be immediate,” Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo - the African Union chairman - told journalists after the meeting at the presidential wing of Abuja’s airport.