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French troops battle I. Coast rebels
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- French troops are reported to have started evacuating foreign nationals from an Ivory Coast city after fighting gunbattles with rebels. Lt. Col. Ange-Antoine Leccia, spokesman for the 1,000-strong French force in the African state, told the Associated Press on Saturday: "They are gathering them at the airport in Man. "They will be evacuated in a plane to Abidjan." There are around 80 French citizens in the Man region, and a smaller number of other Europeans. Earlier the French troops had clashed with rebel fighters near the airport. Already split between north and south by four weeks of fighting after a failed September 19 coup, the Ivory Coast has been flung further into confusion by the sudden emergence of new groups of insurgents. Leccia told Reuters: "There was one wounded among the French." The newly-emerged rebels hold the towns of Danane and Man, more than 650 km (400 miles) from the main city of Abidjan and near the border with anarchic Liberia. The new rebels are from the Yacouba tribe of late junta leader Robert Guei and want to avenge his death. Other rebels holding the north say they want President Laurent Gbagbo -- from the southwest -- to step down to allow new elections. Earlier on Saturday, fighting was reported in a third town in the west of the country. Residents said shooting erupted in the early hours in Toulepleu, close to the area where a newly created group calling itself the Movement for Justice and Peace captured two towns earlier in the week. Rebel commander Deli Gaspard told Reuters: "I have sent men there to cleanse the area. We are continuing our advance." A separate rebel group, calling itself the Ivorian Popular Movement of the Grand Ouest, also claimed to have captured Toulepleu. "It is quiet now and it looks like the rebels have left. The loyalists are securing the town," said one resident. Toulepleu is near the border with Liberia and lies 90 km (60 miles) south of Danane. Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa producer, was effectively cut in three on Friday -- the south under loyalist control, the mainly-Muslim north held by rebels for more than two months and a chunk of the west now in the hands of other insurgents. Gunfire broke out on Thursday in Man and by Friday rebels had taken over the city, though loyalists still controlled the nearby airport. Gbagbo promised on Thursday to throw the insurgents out of the west, saying their aim was to damage the economy. Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the western rebels seemed to include supporters of Guei. Guei, who led Ivory Coast's first coup in 1999 and was shot dead in mysterious circumstances at the start of this rebellion, hailed from the Man region and was fervently supported in the far west. Peace talks have stalled on rebel demands that Gbagbo resign to clear the way for new elections and the authorities' insistence that the rebels disarm. Both sides have been rearming during the talks and have accused each other of atrocities. Ivory Coast's rebellion has already cost hundreds of lives. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes, including thousands of immigrants fleeing growing anti-foreigner sentiment. The conflict has fanned simmering ethnic tensions between northern and southern groups. The rebels say they are fighting against the discrimination of mainly Muslim northern tribes by Christian and animist southern groups that have traditionally dominated government.
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