President Kufuor leaves for Nigeria

... Ivorian leader Snubs summit; defiant as summit convenes
Accra, Nov 14, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor left Accra on Sunday for Abuja, Nigeria, to attend a one-day emergency meeting on the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire.

West African leaders are suppose to discuss a deepening crisis in Ivory Coast, one of the region's former economic powerhouses where a week of unrest has caused some 5,000 expatriates to flee.

Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, accompanied him.

Mr Kwabena Agyepong, the Presidential spokesperson, told newsmen that the meeting is at the instance of President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, who is also the Chairman of the African Union (AU).

President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo, Mr Alpha Konare, Chairman of AU Council and Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, Executive Secretary of ECOWAS, would attend.

The Ivory Coast government said Gbagbo would not attend the emergency summit called by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, but instead was sending National Assembly president Mamadou Koulibaly.

"The country is in crisis. He prefers to be here, to be ready for any eventuality," spokesman Desire Tagro said of Gbagbo.

Ivory Coast leader defiant

IVORY Coast President Laurent Gbagbo replaced his army chief with a more hardline officer and vowed to rebuild his air force today as regional leaders gathered in Nigeria to discuss the unrest in the West African state.
Violence over the past week in Ivory Coast, a former French colony, has caused some 5000 expatriates to flee, put the French army on the streets of the main city Abidjan and raised fears of a conflict that could engulf the wider region. Ivorian forces killed nine French peacekeepers in an air raid on a French base on November 6. France responded by crippling the air force, triggering violence against French and other foreign citizens, including rapes, machete attacks and looting.
Mr Gbagbo told French radio he would buy new warplanes to replace those the French forces destroyed, which included two Sukhoi-25 fighter jets and several attack helicopters.
"Do you think I am going to leave my country with no air defence?" Mr Gbagbo said in comments recorded yesterday but broadcast today.
"If the French army destroys them, we'll buy more for a third time," he said.
Heads of state from Gabon, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Libya, Nigeria and Senegal are due to attend an emergency summit in Abuja later today. Mr Gbagbo was also on the list, but instead sent his parliamentary speaker.
"The president has sent someone to represent him, the head of the national assembly, Mamadou Koulibaly, so of course he will be following what happens," presidential spokesman Desire Tagro said.
Mr Gbagbo sacked his army chief of staff late yesterday, replacing him with Colonel Philippe Mangou, the former chief of army operations who oversaw an assault on the rebel-held north just over a week ago which shattered an 18-month ceasefire.
The move pleased members of the Young Patriots, a militant group which backs Mr Gbagbo and has staged violent demonstrations in the main city Abidjan.
"Mangou's a go-getter... You feel he's got the aggression to be able to reunify the country, to go as far as liberating Bouake (the northern rebel stronghold)," said Roland N'Guessan, helping man a Young Patriot roadblock near the French embassy.
Around 800 French citizens and other foreigners sheltering in a French military base in Abidjan were due to fly back to Paris today, the latest of thousands quitting a nation that was once a model of post-independence prosperity.