Operation Licorne
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| Opération Licorne | |||||||
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| Part of Peacekeeping operations in Côte d'Ivoire | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Côte d'Ivoire |
Forces Nouvelles |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| Laurent Gbagbo | Guillaume Kigbafori Soro | ||||||
Opération Licorne (Operation Unicorn) is the name of the French military operation in support of the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire. It is under French command.
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[edit] Mission
The "Force Licorne", which allegedly takes its name from the establishment in Libreville, Gabon, from which the first contingents departed in September 2002, is commanded by a General Officer (COMANFOR, Force Commander), assisted by an associate Operations General. The force is centered around a PCIAT (Poste de Commandement Interarmées de Théâtre), a joint command post, stationed in Port-Bouët.
The Force Licorne is composed of battalion task groups (Groupements Tactiques Interarmes), which comprise infantry, cavalry, transport and logistics, health service, joint civil-military action groups etc. The Force also comprises a battalion of the Army's light aircraft service (BATALAT), a logistics battalion (BATLOG), squadrons of the Mobile Gendarmerie (militarised riot police) and Gendarmerie prévôtale (military police), and a troop transport group from the Air Force.
The Force's main mission is to support the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire, with a third rank force, which may be rapidly deployed to support the Ivorian Army. The Force Licorne can also be used to ensure the security of French and foreign nationals.
The Force Licorne and the ONUCI are known in Côte d'Ivoire as "Impartial Forces".
The cost of the operation is estimated at around 200 million Euros per annum.
[edit] History
This military operation implicating at the start more than 4000 men (down to 2400 in August 2007), started in September 2002 (at the start of the Ivorian Civil War), independently from the United Nations, to honor the defense agreements signed in between France and Côte d'Ivoire on August 24, 1961. France and later the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), sent important military contingents to separate the belligerents (interposition forces). According to French authorities, supported by a UN resolution, this interposition avoided a Civil War and massacres.
An agreements in between all the involved political forces is signed in France, at Marcoussis, on January 24, 2003.
On April 4, 2004, the ONUCI takes over from the contingents of the ECOWAS; and the Force Licorne (then 4600 men), which remains under French command stays in place to support the United Nations force UNOCI.
On November 6, 2004, the Ivorian governmental aviation carries out an attack on the French position in Bouaké, causing nine deaths and 37 wounded in the French Military (2nd Marine Infantry Regiment (2 RIMa), the Régiment d'Infanterie Chars de Marine (RICM, a light armoured regiment), 505th transport and logistics regiment). The French forces counteract by destroying the two Ivorian Sukhoi Su-25 on the Yamoussoukro base, fifteen minutes after the attack.
The French President Jacques Chirac gave the order to destroy all Ivorian military equipment, to prevent any further attacks by the National Army (FANCI), against the New Forces (Forces Nouvelles, FN) rebels, which would be contrary to the Marcoussis Agreements, and to forbid any further attacks against the French Positions.
The events of November 2004 during which the French Army opened fire on hostile Ivorian protestors, put the Force Licorne in a delicate situation vis-à-vis the civilian population. The suspicious death of an Ivorian, in May 2005, caused the suspension, then the formal reprimand and transfer of the Division General Henri Poncet and of his Associate Operations General Renaud de Malaussène, as well as the suspension of Colonel Eric Burgaud, head of the 13th battalion of Chasseurs Alpins and a non Commissioned Officer from this same battalion by the then Minister of Defense Michèle Alliot-Marie.
