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Incident

Fierce fighting spreads in Ivory Coast showdown

01 April 2011 19:01 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Fierce fighting spread across Abidjan on Friday as troops loyal to Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo fended off attacks by forces seeking to install rival presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
The heaviest clashes centered around the state television station, which went off the air after it was attacked by pro-Ouattara forces overnight.
The boom of heavy weapons fire also rang out constantly from near Gbagbo’s residence and presidential palace, both of which have come under attack, as well as two major military bases -- turning Ivory Coast’s main city into a war-zone.
Two white MI-24 attack helicopters belonging to the United Nations peacekeeping mission circled above central Abidjan’s palm fringed lagoon, but did not intervene.
Gbagbo, who has refused to quit after a November 28 election that U.N.-certified results showed he lost, has been hit by a number of high-level defections in the military and the African Union called on him to step down immediately.
Loyalists have fought back and a Paris-based Gbagbo adviser said his surrender was "out of the question."
Forces supporting Ouattara, who has been recognized as winner of the November election by the African Union and Western powers, marched into Abidjan on Thursday after a swift push south aimed at ousting Gbagbo that met with little resistance.
Gbagbo’s defense forces have been much tougher in Abidjan. The U.N. peacekeeping mission confirmed its headquarters were fired on by Gbabgo’s special forces on Thursday, and returned fire in an exchange lasting about three hours.
Hundreds of foreigners have also been taken to a French military camp after they were threatened by looters [ID:nLDE7300N0] and residents of Abidjan’s leafy Deux Plateau suburb reported massive looting sprees in the security vacuum.
A security source working at the airport said it was taken over by French forces on Friday afternoon, after U.N. peacekeepers took control of it the previous day.
The United Nations, which has condemned violence by Gbagbo’s side, also called on Ouattara to rein in his forces, citing what it said were unconfirmed reports they had abducted and mistreated civilians.
"We can hear shooting and see soldiers moving but there are also armed civilians running in the streets," said Camara Arnold, a resident in Cocody, the neighborhood that is home to the state television building and Gbagbo’s residence.
The power struggle had pushed cocoa prices higher, but they have tumbled since Ouattara’s push on expectations that exports will be freed up. Ivory Coast’s $2.3 billion 2032 bond, on which it defaulted in January, extended gains on Friday, rising more than 3 points to a 3-1/2-month high.
It was not clear where Gbagbo was. Alain Toussaint, a Paris-based adviser of Gbagbo’s, said he would not give up.
"He will not surrender. It is out of the question."
Reuters witnesses said clashes were also heard coming from Treichville, a neighborhood where the Republican Guard has a base that is used to protect the city’s main bridges. Residents also reported heavy fighting at the Agban gendarmerie base.
Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, said witnesses in Treichville and Port Bouet reported "numerous" civilians killed by sniper fire by pro-Gbagbo forces.
UK-based Amnesty International said the city was "on the brink of ... total chaos."
STANDOFF KILLED HUNDREDS
Gbagbo has been in power since 2000. His mandate ran out in 2005 but the presidential election was delayed until 2010, ostensibly because of instability in the country.
A Sorbonne-educated history professor who prides himself on being in touch with ordinary Ivorians, he rose to prominence as firebrand lecturer who challenged the autocratic rule of Ivory Coast’s first post-independence president.
The four month standoff since the election has killed hundreds and rekindled the country’s 2002-3 civil war. About 1 million have fled Abidjan alone and 122,000 gone to Liberia.
This week, Ouattara’s forces advanced from all directions, taking the capital Yamoussoukro and San Pedro cocoa port.
An EU diplomat said sanctions will not be lifted on San Pedro cocoa port until Gbagbo steps down.
Some of Gbagbo’s top officers, including the head of his armed forces and gendarmerie, have abandoned him but an unknown number are putting up stiff resistance and Ouattara’s forces could get sucked into bloody urban warfare with his hard-core supporters, some of whom are recently armed civilians.
At least 494 people have been confirmed killed since the standoff began, according to the United Nations, but, given the scale of fighting, the real figure is likely to be much higher.