Mob attacks French

last updated 8 January 2015

Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Outraged Ivorians pelted the French Embassy in Abidjan with rocks this week to protest a French-brokered peace accord that offers major concessions to the nation’s rebels. French soldiers used tear gas to push back the demonstrators. France, the former colonial ruler of Ivory Coast, helped end a four-month civil war recently by persuading President Laurent Gbagbo and rebel leaders to share power in a new government. The rebels, who were trying to take over the country’s lucrative cocoa plantations, celebrated the peace accord as a victory, while Gbagbo supporters said it amounted to capitulation. Gbagbo himself was more resigned. “There are two ways of getting out of a war,” he said. “You win militarily, or you negotiate and compromise.”