Africa

Home page

Africa

Ivory Coast leader in bunker vows not to surrender

07 April 2011 18:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A spokesman for Ivory Coast’s strongman says the entrenched leader will not cede power to the internationally recognized president, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
The representative said he spoke to Laurent Gbagbo at around 1 p.m. on Thursday inside the bunker where he is hiding and Gbagbo reiterated he will not negotiate his surrender.
Toussaint Alain said by telephone from Paris that Gbagbo wants a meeting with Alassane Ouattara, who was declared the winner of last year’s election.
Alain said Gbagbo does not want France to be involved in the discussions.
The 65-year-old ruler has been holed up inside the bunker with his wife for days. The United Nations with help from France began airstrikes on Monday to take out Gbagbo’s arsenal.