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Another North African nation apparently is being plunged into civil war by rebel Muslims who want to get rid of a Christian president, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
They are being supported by United Nations and U.S. efforts, even though the nation's own constitutional process affirmed Christian President Laurent Gbagbo's election victory.
Already Arab revolts have spread across North Africa and the Middle East. Libya is involved in what could be called a civil war, and Yemen appears about to enter one.
Now, in the Ivory Coast, forces of Muslim-backed Alassane Ouattara from the northern part of the country have taken over the capital, Yamoussoukro, just as the U.N. Security Council has voted to impose sanctions against the country until its current president, Gbagbo, relinquishes power.
Gbagbo has his major backing from the southern Ivory Coast.
Already, rebel forces of Ouattara have captured six towns in a month from security forces loyal to incumbent Gbagbo. Reports from the area say that fighting has broken out in the eastern portion of the country bordering Ghana. Ouattara forces have just seized San Pedro, the world's largest cocoa exporting port, and are on the outskirts of the country's economic capital of Abidjan.
Gbagbo had called for a cease-fire, but Ouattara said that was just a diversion, insisting that forces loyal to Gbagbo surrender. Since last November's election, pro-Gbagbo troops have lost every battle to pro-Ouattara forces, suggesting that they may be getting assistance from foreign military advisers, which could include Islamists who have had battlefield experience, one source said.
The U.N. Security Council has stated Gbagbo must stand down and allow Ouattara to take control even though the nation's own constitutional process upheld his concerns over vote fraud in the election and declared Ghagbo the election winner on that basis.
It's the second Muslim-Christian battle in Africa recently. The earlier dispute was in 2007, when Barack Obama campaigned for now-Kenyan Prime Minster Raila Odinga. Appearing with Odinga at campaign stops, Obama gave speeches accusing the sitting Kenyan president of being corrupt and oppressive.
Then on Aug. 29, 2007, Odinga signed a secret Memorandum of Understanding with Muslim Sheik Abdullah Abdi, the chief of the National Muslim Leaders Forum of Kenya. In exchange for Muslim support, Odinga promised to rewrite the Kenyan Constitution to install Shariah as law in "Muslim declared regions," elevate Islam as "the only true religion" and give Islamic leaders "oversight" over other religions, establish Shariah courts and ban Christian proselytism.
Even with strong Muslim backing, Odinga was beaten in the December 2007 elections. He then accused the incumbent president of rigging the vote and allegedly incited his supporters to riot. Over the next month, some 1,500 Kenyans were killed and more than 500,000 displaced – with most of the violence led by Muslims, who set churches ablaze and hacked Christians to death with machetes.
Odinga eventually ended up as prime minister in Kenya through a power-sharing arrangement that was installed in an effort to appease the rioters.
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