Ivory Coast detainees escape

Ivory Coast detainees escape

The temporary government has not yet started work

About 30 detainees have escaped from a French military camp in western Ivory Coast after it was besieged by pro-government loyalists, eyewitnesses say.

Thousands of demonstrators besieged the French military base in the western Ivorian town of Daloa.

The BBC's Kate Davenport quoted eye-witnesses as saying that the protest, many of them in school uniform, marched through the streets shouting anti-French slogans.

During the protest the detainees are reported to have jumped camp barriers, escaping before the French troops had time to disperse the protesters.

Former colonial power France has sent 3,000 troops to Ivory Coast to oversee a fragile ceasefire aimed at ending 5 months of conflict between government and rebel forces.

Cabinet posts

At least 112 people from an ethnic group who live in the border areas of both Liberian and Ivory Coast were being held at the French base, according to sources in Daloa.

The were detained earlier this month after an attack on the rebel-held border town of Bangolo, which left at least 60 civilians dead.

NEW GOVERNMENT

Gbagbo's FPI: 10 seats

Former ruling PDCI: 10 seats

RDR: 7 seats

Main MPCI rebels: 7 seats

Western rebels: 2 seats

Others: 5 seats

Q&A: Why the fighting?

Wednesday's protest came as President Laurent Gbagbo named two key ministers in the power-sharing government.

Wrangling over whether the rebels should be given the defence and interior ministries threatened to hold up the creation of the new government, which was agreed earlier this year during peace talks.

Adou Assoa from the ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party is the interim defence minister, while Fofana Zemogo from the opposition Rally of Republicans (RDR) party will provisionally hold the interior portfolio.

The power-sharing government has not yet started work, as the nine rebel ministers refuse to go to the government-controlled commercial capital, Abidjan, citing security concerns.

RDR ministers also say they are worried about their safety but, with the exception of their leader Alassane Ouattara, most of them have now returned from exile.

The rebellion has divided Ivory Coast into a rebel-dominated largely Muslim north and a government-controlled south where the Christian population is concentrated.