Ivory Coast: Besieged Gbagbo 'in basement' of residence Skip to main content

Ivory Coast: Besieged Gbagbo 'in basement' of residence

Click to play
Advertisement
The BBC's Andrew Harding watched pro-Ouattara fighters head into Abidjan

Ivory Coast crisis

Ivory Coast's defiant President Laurent Gbagbo is sheltering with his family in the basement of his surrounded Abidjan residence, a senior military source has told the BBC.
Troops loyal to Mr Gbagbo's rival, UN-recognised President Alassane Ouattara, say they have surrounded the compound.
Pro-Ouattara forces said earlier they had already overrun the residence in the West African country's main city.
UN and French helicopters attacked targets around the compound on Monday.
Mr Gbagbo has refused to leave office even though the Ivorian election commission declared him the loser of November's run-off vote, and the UN certified the result.
The BBC's Andrew Harding has spoken to a senior military source on the western edge of Abidjan, where hundreds of pro-Ouattara troops are gathered.
The source told our correspondent they had completely surrounded the presidential residence and that Mr Gbagbo and his family were in the bunker. The claim is unconfirmed.
Mr Gbagbo's spokesman told AFP news agency the incumbent president had not reached the point of surrender.
But Mr Ouattara's representative in Paris, Ali Coulibaly, told French media earlier that Mr Gbagbo was negotiating his exit.

Ivory Coast: Battle for power

  • World's largest cocoa producer
  • Once a haven of peace in West Africa
  • Ouattara recognised as president-elect in 2010
  • International sanctions imposed to force out Gbagbo
  • Hundreds killed, one million have fled
  • 9,000 UN peacekeepers monitor 2003 ceasefire
Forces loyal to Mr Ouattara, a former International Monetary Fund economist, began a dramatic military offensive last week, sweeping in from the north and west.
About four million civilians have been trapped by days of fighting and looting in Abidjan.
Patrick Achi, a spokesman for Mr Ouattara, told the BBC earlier that if Mr Gbagbo were captured, he would be arrested and "brought to justice".
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the raids launched on Monday evening against Mr Gbagbo's arsenal were to stop attacks on civilians.
UN Mi-24 helicopters are reported to have bombarded five targets: Mr Gbagbo's residence, a republican guard base, state television headquarters, the Akban paramilitary base and the Akouedo arms depot.
UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said that a UN Security Council resolution authorised such action.
The use and calibre of heavy weapons by Gbagbo forces had, he said, escalated sharply in recent days.
The UN mission in Ivory Coast (Unoci) had also been under almost continuous attack, he said.
Click to play
Advertisement
A resident in Abidjan says his house shook as the UN and French bombing raids took place
Mr Gbagbo's spokesman told AFP news agency that the incumbent president had been "surprised" by the attacks, as he was still open to dialogue.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement he had authorised the 1,600-strong French Licorne force in the country to help the UN military response.
Ivory Coast gained independence from France in 1960, but has hosted French peacekeepers since its civil war almost a decade ago.
The French military says it has about 1,900 foreigners under its protection in Abidjan, and nearly 450 others have already left the country.
The UN has sent an envoy to investigate a massacre of hundreds of civilians in the western town of Duekoue last week.
Each side has blamed the other for the killings, which the International Committee of the Red Cross says claimed at least 800 lives.
Map
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12967610
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chronology of the Press in Burma

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl
Post a Comment
Read more

ARSA claims ambush on Myanmar security forces

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Sunday claimed responsibility for an ambush on Myanmar security forces that left several wounded in northern Rakhine state, the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence. Rakhine was plunged into turmoil last August, when a series of ARSA raids prompted a military backlash so brutal the UN says it likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The army campaign sent some 650,000 Rohingya fleeing for Bangladesh, where refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes. Myanmar's military, which tightly controls information about Rakhine, denies any abuses and insists the crackdown was a proportionate response to crush the "terrorist" threat. ARSA have launched few attacks in recent months.  But the army reported that "about ten" Rohingya terrorists ambushed a car with hand-made mines and gunfire on Friday morning
Post a Comment
Read more

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do
1 comment
Read more