After winning control of most of the country within a week, the Republican Forces, who are seeking to oust Gbagbo in favor of president-elect Alassane Ouattara, on March 30 entered Abidjan, and attacked Gbagbo’s palace, army camps and the state- run television headquarters. Gbagbo refuses to accept a Nov. 28 election defeat.
“Lots of people were lying dead in the streets basically, we could see a lot, a lot, a lot of people killed. It’s truly horrific,” Kelnor Panglung, a spokesman for the Red Cross in Ivory Coast, said from Abidjan. “We don’t have any information about the authors of these killings.”
The United Nations, the U.S., the African Union and the European Union all recognize Ouattara, 69, as the winner of the nation’s first vote in a decade, while Gbagbo, 65, refuses to step down, alleging voter fraud. Cocoa prices have tumbled 7.7 percent in the past 10 days as traders predict an imminent end to the impasse in the world’s largest cocoa producer. The crisis led the West African nation to default on its $2.3 billion of Eurobonds, which have rallied 30 percent in 10 days as Ouattara’s forces advance.
John Atta Mills, the president of Ghana, “has indicated his willingness to give political asylum to President Gbagbo if he asks for it,” spokesman Koku Anyidoho said in an interview broadcast on Accra-based Radio Gold today. Gbagbo hadn’t yet asked for asylum, he added.
Killing and Looting
Violence in the country, which prior to the elections had been divided into a rebel-held north and a government controlled south since 2002, has increased in recent days. Yesterday the UN said Liberian mercenaries loyal to Gbagbo were killing and looting in the west of the country, putting its own death toll since the election at 494.
The Duekoue massacre occurred on March 29 and is due to “inter-communal violence,” spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas said in an interview from Geneva.
Aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres yesterday received 60 patients in their emergency ward in the northern Abidjan suburb of Abobo, 50 of whom suffered from gunshot wounds, field coordinator Henry Gray said in an e-mailed statement.
“We’re hearing constant gunfire along with the occasional heavy detonation, and that’s been going on for a few days now,” Gray said. “There’s a lot of pillaging and looting going on, and if you’re out on the streets, you’re basically a target.”
TV Tussle
Abidjan, a city of about four million, is the first place the advancing rebels have met real resistance from Gbagbo loyalists. The Republican Forces said they captured Gbagbo’s residence, in the affluent Cocody neighborhood, and the headquarters of the state-owned broadcaster, Radio Television Ivoirienne, the state-run broadcaster, which is located nearby.
Gbagbo troops today said they retook control of the station, which they said had been attacked by UN peacekeepers, with a spokesman, Alphonse Guano, calling for resistance to Ouattara’s forces. A television bulletin said Gbagbo was still at his residence, disputing New Republican claims.
“There is some resistance from Gbagbo’s side,” Gilles Yabi, West Africa director for International Crisis Group, said from Dakar, Senegal’s capital. “His forces and militias in Abidjan and elsewhere could regain some courage and continue the fight. I wouldn’t say the situation is over yet.”
Gbagbo Won’t Resign
Gbagbo’s spokesman denied speculation he fled the country.
“He is on Ivorian territory,” Ahoua Don Mello said in an interview broadcast yesterday on Radio France Internationale. “He has no intention of resigning.” He called for negotiations in an interview today.
Ouattara yesterday reopened Ivory Coast’s airspace yesterday, while keeping land and sea borders shut until further notice.
Three United Nations peacekeepers were wounded, including two seriously, in an attack by security forces loyal to Gbagbo, the UN said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.
A UN patrol was carrying out a humanitarian mission when it came under fire in Abidjan’s Plateau neighborhood, the UN said. “It is the fourth time in 24 hours that the headquarters and the patrols” of the UN mission Ivory Coast have been targeted by pro-Gbagbo forces, it said. There are close to 10,000 UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast and some French troops.
Defections
Offering Gbagbo amnesty as an incentive to step down is “not an issue for consideration right now,” UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, yesterday. “The immediate issue is for him to hand over power to Ouattara.” The AU, Economic Community of West African States and the U.S. also called on Gbagbo to step down immediately.
Gbagbo’s whereabouts are unknown, Bernard Valero, spokesman for the foreign ministry of former colonial power France, told a Paris news conference.
“The security forces around Mr. Gbagbo seem to have abandoned him, after he’d been abandoned by the army leadership,” Valero said. “This creates uncertainty and risk in the town, particularly for looting.”
An elite 1,000-member security unit founded by Gbagbo in 2005 announced yesterday it would defect to Ouattara’s government. The unit, known as the Centre de Commandement des Operations de Securite, or Cecos, called on its members to “rally without further delay to the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast,” according to a statement on its website.
Before New Republican forces entered Abidjan, the head of Gbagbo’s army, General Phillipe Mangou, sought refuge at the residence of the South African ambassador, the country’s foreign ministry said.
Human Rights Violations
General Edouard Tiape Kassarate, head of the military police, defected to Ouattara’s administration at its UN- protected headquarters in the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, Alain Lobognon, an adviser to Soro, said by telephone two days ago.
There was a “mass exodus” out of Abidjan as civilians tried to avoid the clashes, the UN Refugee Agency said on its website on March 31.
The UN said it had received “unconfirmed but worrying reports” of human-rights violations committed by the Republican Forces in the western towns of Guiglo and Daloa and in Abidjan. The fighters may have arbitrarily arrested, abducted and extorted money from civilians, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an e-mailed statement.
Ouattara Supporters Targeted
Pro-Gbagbo troops have committed “daily” human-rights violations, including the reported burning alive of two civilians, OCHA said. The attacks have focused on people from the north and neighboring West African countries suspected of supporting Ouattara.
Ouattara’s administration “firmly rejects” any allegations that their forces committed human rights abuses, according to an e-mailed statement today.
Cocoa for May delivery rose for the first day this week, adding $59, or 2 percent, to $3,011 per metric ton at the end of trading in New York yesterday. The price for the beans slumped to an 11-week low on March 31 on hopes for a quick resumption in exports, which had been crippled by EU sanctions.
Ivory Coast’s defaulted dollar-denominated bond jumped 6.4 percent to 50.417 cents on the dollar at the end of trading yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
–With assistance from Jason McLure, Baudelaire Mieu and Moses Mozart Dzawu in Accra, Gregory Viscusi in Paris, Gopal Ratnam in Washington and Paul Richardson in Nairobi. Editors: Antony Sguazzin, Ana Monteiro
To contact the reporters on this story: Olivier Monnier in Abidjan at [email protected]; Pauline Bax in Abidjan at [email protected]; Franz Wild in Johannesburg at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at [email protected]
