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Pro-Gbagbo Student Group in Ivory Coast Vows to Back Alassane Ouattara

19 April 2011 04:56 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A youth group that supported former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has called on its members to lay down their arms and acknowledge Alassane Ouattara as the countryâ€™s elected leader, APA reports quoting â€œBloombergâ€.
â€œStudents must return to classrooms and lecture halls,â€ Augustin Mian, general secretary of the Federation of Students and Scholars of Ivory Coast, said in a phone interview today. â€œWe call on students who still hold weapons to lay them down without delay and without conditions.â€
Fighting broke out in Yopougon, a neighborhood of the commercial capital, Abidjan, on April 16 between members of the Republican Forces loyal to Ouattara and pro-Gbagbo youth militias. Gbagbo was captured April 11 by pro-Ouattara fighters and French troops.
Buses in Abidjan resumed service today, Mathias Kouaido, a resident, said by phone. French forces, which seized control of the countryâ€™s main airport in Abidjan during the fighting, returned it to Ivory Coastâ€™s airport authority, Koffi Neba, acting executive director of the airport, said by phone.
Abidjanâ€™s port also reopened, port official Jean Brindou said in an interview from the city today. A Danish tanker carrying butane anchored in the port on April 15, he said.
â€œWe donâ€™t have any customers this morning but the port is open and protected by French soldiers,â€ Brindou said.
Offensive
Gbagbo, who had ruled the worldâ€™s largest cocoa producer for a decade, refused to accept the results of the countryâ€™s Nov. 28 presidential runoff, which gave victory to Ouattara. After a three-month stalemate, forces loyal to Ouattara launched an offensive from northern Ivory Coast that ended with Gbagboâ€™s capture.
A group of five French lawyers hired by a daughter of Gbagbo wrote to Ouattara today requesting an entry permit to Ivory Coast to visit the jailed former president, Agence France- Presse reported. Johnny Ahoussou Kouadio, Ouattaraâ€™s justice minister, said yesterday members of Gbagboâ€™s government may be prosecuted for embezzlement, weapons purchases and â€œblood crimes,â€ the Paris-based wire service said.