Not Surrender--Just Re-Deployed to Fight Germans in Paris

The French are bolting the Ivory Coast. Yes, I know: Who could have predicted?

French troops serving in a peacekeeping force in the divided west African country, pressed on with their withdrawal from volatile southern parts of the economic capital, where they had deployed in the wake of the violence.

Charles Ble Goude, firebrand leader of the Young Patriots movement of hardline Gbagbo partisans, had announced a rally for Saturday in the central Plateau district to demand "the immediate withdrawal" of all French troops from Ivory Coast.

Major Jacques Combarieu, a spokesman for France's Operation Unicorn, which is serving in Ivory Coast alongside African soldiers operating under a UN peacekeeping mandate, said troops who had moved into southern Abidjan after the unrest of November 6-10 were disengaging.

"There's still a squad of legionnaires at Marcory, who will pull out gradually. Everybody will be out by December 15," Combarieu said. In all, slightly under 5,000 French troops are in Ivory Coast after reinforcements went in last month. About 1,000 of the extra soldiers have already left the country.

(via Instapundit)