On 11 December Ivorian loyalist troops regained control of Blolekin, about 35 miles from the Liberian border. According to the local press, government-hired mercenaries also took part in the attack, which penetrated at least 35 miles into the area controlled by the MPIGO (Ivorian Peoples Movement for the Great West).
Meanwhile, the larger rebel group Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI) said warned that France would incur the wrath of west African nations if it "involved itself in one way or another in the crisis." The warning came a day after France said it would reinforce its troops in Ivory Coast and offered to host a meeting of the belligerents to defuse the crisis. - Adam Geibel