United Nations troops and French peacekeepers deployed Monday to a town north of Abidjan to help restore calm one day after clashes left around 10 people dead, officials said. Unidentified assailants attacked two police stations in Anyama, a northern suburb of Abidjan, late Saturday and briefly seized the town of Agboville, 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the north, the military said in a statement, AP reported. Ivorian troops retook control of the town late Sunday. Capt. Bois Moreau, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast, said U.N. and French troops were dispatched to Agboville to help restore calm. He refused to say how many were sent there. The Ivorian army said in a statement that seven of its troops were killed in the fighting along with «several assailants,» 19 of whom were captured. It was unclear why the attack was launched or who was behind it. An army official said the assailants freed 217 prisoners in the raid. The U.N. peacekeeping mission condemned the attack, saying in a statement the violence «could jeopardize the important progress made in the peace process,» particularly after the last round of talks in late June in Pretoria, South Africa. The U.N. also called «on all parties to refrain from any action that could further contribute to the deterioration of an already worrying situation.»
