Two French soldiers wounded in Ivory Coast clash

Two French soldiers have been injured in a clash with rebel fighters in western Ivory Coast, the French military said today.

As many as 10 rebels were injured or killed in the fighting near Duekoue, the officials said.

France, Ivory Coast’s former colonial ruler, has more than 2,500 troops in the West African nation to try to enforce a repeatedly broken ceasefire in the four-month-old civil war.

Neither of the French soldiers were badly hurt, said Lieutenant Colonel Ange-Antoine Leccia, the French military spokesman. They were evacuated to France for medical treatment, he added.

Western rebels have signed a ceasefire while peace talks involving Ivory Coast’s three rebel groups, the government and political parties play out in Paris. Western Ivory Coast has been the most active front in the war since November.