Ivorians Confront French Troops at Leader’s Home
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – Thousands of government loyalists massed outside the home of Ivory Coast’s president yesterday, facing off against French armored vehicles in response to urgent appeals for a “human shield” around the hard-line leader amid fears he might be toppled.
French and Ivory Coast military leaders, appearing together on state TV, appealed for calm following three days of violent protests the Red Cross said had wounded more than 500 people. Two hospitals reported five dead and 250 wounded in yesterday’s clashes alone.
The U.N. Security Council met to consider sanctions and the African Union came out in support of French and U.N. intervention, isolating President Gbagbo.
Chaos erupted Saturday when his air force killed nine French peacekeepers and an American aid worker in an air strike on Ivory Coast’s rebel-held north. The government later called the bombing a mistake, an assertion France rejected. Yesterday, French armored vehicles moved in around Mr. Gbagbo’s home in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, Abidjan.
The French denied surrounding the house or intending to oust Mr. Gbagbo, saying forces only were securing a temporary base at a hotel a few hundred yards away for about 1,300 foreigners who had taken refuge at a French military base.
State radio and TV, however, delivered urgent calls for loyalists to gather at Mr. Gbagbo’s house.
Thousands responded, chanting against the French: “The whites don’t like the blacks, but we don’t care!” Some signs declared, “Ivory Coast is a sovereign state.” The crowd swarmed one foreigner – by appearance an immigrant from a neighboring northern country – caught up in their midst, kicking and beating him. “Kill him,” young men shouted, before he was dragged into the crowd. Six men, faces painted black, forced a reporter from his taxi at gunpoint and commandeered the vehicle.