War fears in Ivory Coast as troops advance on rebels

THE Ivory Coast’s fragile ceasefire crumbled yesterday as hundreds of loyalist troops rolled toward rebels behind a two-month uprising raising the spectre of all-out war in the divided West African nation.

A French army spokesman said the loyalist troops were heading to the central rebel-held town of Vavoua to attack. There were also reports of fighting in a western government-held town.

“It is an incident that we qualify as serious,” said Lt Col Ange-Antoine Leccia, spokesman for the 1,000-strong French force monitoring a month-old cease-fire in the former French colony.