Cease-fire collapses in Ivory Coast

YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast -- Heavy gunfire erupted around Ivory Coast's second city Sunday, heralding the start of a government offensive to reclaim the rebel-held north after cease-fire efforts collapsed.

"There's firing all over the place," said a frightened resident cowering in her home in the central city of Bouake, which has been in rebel hands for over two weeks. Reached by phone, the woman said the shooting started Sunday afternoon and was still going on two hours later.

The gunfire came as President Laurent Gbagbo told West African mediators he would not sign a cease-fire agreed to last week unless rebels disarm first.

Frustrated, the envoys from six West African countries packed bags to leave, saying they would consult with their heads of state.

"We came here with the best intentions, now it's basically a problem for Ivory Coast," said Kwame Addo-Kufuor, Ghana's defense minister.

Ivorian authorities have been promising an all-out assault to retake the rebel-held north, even as they negotiated with the mediators.

The rebels include a core group of 750-800 ex-soldiers, many dismissed from the army for suspected disloyalty. Their demands vary from reinstatement in the army to the establishment of a new government.

They have held Bouake and Korhogo since the start of the uprising, gathering support from northerners who complain the southern-based government treats them as second-class citizens. Northerners are predominantly Muslim and from different ethnic groups than the largely Christian southerners.

Rebels said they repelled a government attack involving 19 vehicles late Saturday at Seguela, a town about 60 miles west of Bouake. The claim could not be independently verified.

Col. Frederic Thuet, in charge of French operations in and around the capital, Yamoussoukro, said about 300 Ivorian troops moved north Saturday night toward rebel-held areas. And shortly before nightfall Sunday, a large cargo plane landed at Yamoussoukro's airport, carrying ammunition that Ivorian soldiers loaded onto five trucks and drove away, witnesses said.

In Tiebissou, a town 20 miles north of Yamoussoukro, truckloads of Ivorian soldiers headed up the roads north toward Bouake and northwest toward Sakasso on Sunday.

After most Ivorian soldiers vacated Tiebissou, residents emerged to discover the forces had looted shops and restaurants. Shopkeepers recovered bags of sweets, jerry cans, pots, pans and other belongings from their pillaged stores and carted them home on wheelbarrows.

The rebels claim that only the French military presence at Yamoussoukro is stopping them from marching on Abidjan.

A 1,000-strong French force is deployed in Ivory Coast to protect foreign nationals and provide logistical support to the Ivorian army. French and U.S. troops have evacuated around 2,500 foreign nationals from rebel-held areas since the uprising began.

French forces flew nine more people out of Bouake in helicopters Sunday, even as gunfire echoed in other parts of the city.

Ivory Coast is the world's leading producer of cocoa and a key West African port. Its first-ever coup in 1999, amid an economic downturn, shattered four decades of stability rare for the turbulent region.