French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe says Israel has asked France to help evacuate its diplomats in Ivory Coast where forces loyal to two rival presidential candidates are locked in fighting.
Juppe said the Israeli request was one of “numerous requests” for assistance France had received.
French troops are deployed in Ivory Coast to back up UN peacekeepers in the former French West African colony.
On April 6, French and UN troops in a helicopter-borne mission rescued the Japanese ambassador caught up in fighting in the country’s commercial capital of Abidjan.
Soldiers backing Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of Ivory Coast’s presidential election in November, have laid siege to Abidjan residence of Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent who refuses to relinquish power.
compiled from agency reports