Ivory Coast truce falls apart as mercenaries join fight

A western Ivory Coast cocoa city and another nearby town were in rebel hands yesterday after a six-week truce crumbled and a new front opened, carving the west African nation into three parts.

The emergence of previously unknown insurgents in the west raised fears that a two-month uprising in the former French colony could degenerate into a many-fronted civil war.

Gunfire broke out on Thursday in Man, about 300 miles north-west of Abidjan in the heart of the plantations.

By yesterday, rebels had taken over the city, though loyalists still controlled the nearby airport, said a spokesman for the 1,000-strong French force monitoring a month-old cease-fire. Further west, near the border with Liberia, the town of Danane was also in rebel hands, he said.

President Laurent Gbagbo promised on Thursday to oust the insurgents from the west, saying their aim was to damage the economy.

Ivory Coast is a regional economic powerhouse and home to millions of immigrants from neighbouring countries, many of whom work on plantations in what is the world's leading cocoa producer.

In the centre of the country, government troops pulled back after fighting around the rebel-held city of Vavoua. Loyalist forces accompanied by foreign mercenaries withdrew to government-held Daloa, about 35 miles south of Vavoua, late on Thursday.

The rebels based in the centre and north of the country – who launched their uprising with a failed coup attempt on 19 September – said they had nothing to do with the fighting in the west. But a spokesman for Mr Gbagbo said the rebel groups were working together.