France Sends Planes for Ivory Coast Expats

South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, arrived in Ivory Coast yesterday to launch an African Union effort to resolve the crisis, as violence continued for the fourth day.

At least 10 people were killed and hundreds wounded as French troops, protesters and local security forces clashed.

According to reports, shooting broke out yesterday as French soldiers tried to leave a hotel in the capital, Abidjan. France said Ivorian forces, trying to help them leave, opened fire after being shot at by protesters. But the demonstrators said the French had fired on the crowd.

Meanwhile, France chartered planes to take supplies to French citizens displaced by the ongoing violence.

The French defence minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, had earlier announced that the chartered planes would be used to repatriate its citizens who wished to leave.

"There is no global plan to evacuate civilians. However ... there are a certain number of people who we will repatriate if they wish," she said.

About 15,000 French citizens, including 8,000 with dual nationality, live in Ivory Coast. Spain was also sending a plane to airlift its citizens out of the country.

The violence so far has left at least 30 people dead and hundreds more injured.

After talks with the president, Laurent Gbagbo, Mr Mbeki said the leader was committed to peace deals struck with rebels in the north.

"I must say I am very pleased by the commitment of Presi dent Laurent Gbagbo [to the deals] so that Ivory Coast can go through a transitional process," Mr Mbeki said.

Ivory Coast's army shattered an 18-month ceasefire with the rebels last week by launching bombing raids and a ground offensive. But France destroyed the country's military aircraft after nine French soldiers were killed by one of the raids.

Businesses and shops remained closed in Abidjan yesterday and expatriates stayed in their homes to avoid the anti-foreign rioting that has rocked the city.

"Nothing is normal here," an expatriate aid worker told the Guardian over the phone.

"Gbagbo's jeunes patriots have staged demonstrations throughout the city and have set up groups guarding the national radio and television, the presidential palace and the Hotel Ivoire. I am here at home with my family and we cannot go outside. It is like a state of siege."

The aid official, who did not want to be named for fear of retaliation, said state radio and television services were broadcasting invective against the French. "It is like hate radio," he said.

The UN security council, the EU and a group of west African leaders have all condemned Mr Gbagbo's government for the violence, which began on Saturday after the warplanes killed the French peacekeepers and a US aid worker.

France, Ivory Coast's former colonial ruler, wiped out the country's air force on the tarmac in retaliation, sparking anti-French rampages by mobs of thousands in the fiercely nationalist south.

About 1,000 Gbagbo loyal ists were maintaining a standoff outside the Hotel Ivoire, which has been commandeered by the French military, yesterday. Some of the 1,300 French and other foreign civilians moved from their homes by the French military amid looting and burning watched the protesters from inside a ring of barbed wire.

"We are not going to leave," shouted one protester, according to the Associated Press.

French leaders have said that they hold Mr Gbagbo responsible for the air strike and the subsequent violence. The president was installed in an uprising by his supporters in 2000 after an aborted vote count in presidential elections.

The unrest has shut down the harvesting and export of cocoa at the peak of its season. Ivory Coast produces 45% of the world's cocoa.

Violence has also closed the country's two main ports in Abidjan and San Pedro.

About 1,300 Ivorians have fled across the border to Liberia, according to the UN.