New York, October 15, 2004—Ivory Coast journalist Amadou
Dagnogo, who disappeared from the rebel-held town of Bouake nearly two
months ago, was flown to the commercial capital, Abidjan, yesterday by
French peacekeepers. Dagnogo, the Bouake correspondent for Abidjan-based
independent daily L'Inter, said he had been detained by rebels
for six days but had escaped.
In a telephone interview with CPJ, Dagnogo said he had been forced into
a vehicle on August 22 by supporters of Guillaume Soro, leader of the
Forces Nouvelles (FN) rebel movement that controls Bouake. They held him
in detention, beat and tortured him, saying they did not like his articles,
according to the journalist. He said they told him his newspaper was "too
hard" on them.
Before disappearing, Dagnogo told his editor he had received threats from
the FN. Dagnogo wrote articles about a split in the rebel movement and
alleged atrocities by Soro's men. Fighting broke out in June between Soro's
forces and those loyal to rival rebel commander Ibrahim Coulibaly, popularly
known as Ib. Some local sources say L'Inter is seen as sympathetic
to Coulibaly, and frequently publishes stories from his Web site.
Dagnogo said he had managed to escape after six days, thanks to "friends"
among the pro-Soro rebels. He said he did not contact anyone immediately
because he was still in hiding and without money.
Dagnogo said he later traveled north to Korhogo and Bamako, the capital
of Mali, where he tried to get help to fly back to Abidjan. When that
failed, he returned to Ivory Coast, to the western town of Man, where
French peacekeepers have a base to the north of the ceasefire line. The
peacekeepers agreed to fly him to Abidjan.
Ivory Coast has been divided into government-controlled south and rebel-held
north since an armed rebellion in 2002. Fighting broke out in the north
in June between rebel forces loyal to Coulibaly and those of Soro, who
is also communications minister in the power-sharing government established
under a fragile 2003 peace accord. Coulibaly was arrested in France in
August 2003 on charges of planning to overthrow the government, but still
has some supporters in the north.
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