Ivory Coast: Pro-Ouattara forces launch palace assault (& claim to be inside presidential residence)

[Turborama]

Source: Al Jazeera English

Fierce fighting rages in Cote d'Ivoire's main city as pro-Ouattara forces claim to be inside presidential residence.
Last Modified: April 05 2011 04:48

Heavy fighting is continuing in Abidjan where forces loyal to Cote d'Ivoire's presidential rivals are battling for control of the country's main city.

Fighters supporting Alassane Ouattara, internationally recognised as Cote d'Ivoire's legitimate president, launched an assault around the presidential palace early on Tuesday as they attempt to oust incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo from power.

Machine gun and heavy weapons fire could be heard near the palace before dawn, witnesses told Reuters, while a spokesman for Ouattara's government has claimed its troops have already occupied Gbagbo's official presidential residence.

"Yes, they are inside his residence. They are in control," Patrick Achi told Reuters by telephone. "But if Gbagbo's there or not, I do not know."

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/04/2011446577547697.html

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More details and video report at the link.

[yngdip]

1. The Ivory Coast

is lucky to be too small and too brown for the U.S. to interfere with a 'kinetic military action' or a humanitarian war. However, being formerly colonized and terrorized by the French earns the country the right to bombs from France!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/french-president-nicolas-sarkozy-authorizes-ivory-coast-action/civil-war/#


Is war the only solution these days?

[pampango]

2. Glad the UN is helping to oust the dictator who lost the election but refuses

to turn the government over to the winner. He retains power through his control of the military.

The UN has thousands of "boots on the ground" in the Ivory Coast. It is good to see them used to enforce the will of the Ivorian people rather than just shrugging their shoulders and letting the dictator remain in power as usually happened prior to R2P.

[Robbien]

4. Since the "winner" Ouattara used to be a deputy head of the IMF

the Ivory Coast is damned with either guy.

[Ghost Dog]

3. Gbagbo Negotiates Exit as Ivory Coast’s Army Surrenders

April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Forces loyal to Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo surrendered and the former president began to negotiate his exit from power with the United Nations, a day after French and UN forces bombed his last strongholds in the commercial capital, Abidjan.

Gbagbo was bunkered in a basement with his family and ready to surrender, Choi Young-jin, the head of the UN’s mission in the West African nation, said in an interview on Al Jazeera today. Earlier, troops backing rival Alassane Ouattara captured most of Abidjan.

“The war is over,” Alcide Djedje, Gbagbo’s foreign minister, told France24, adding that he was sent to the French Embassy in Abidjan to negotiate. “When the heavy artillery and the ammunitions depots have been destroyed, the security forces can’t continue to fight very long.”

Phillippe Mangou, the chief of staff of the army, Bruno Dogbo Ble, the head of Gbagbo’s Republican Guard, and General Thiape Kassarate Edouard, commander of the military policy, all told the UN today that they will stop fighting, UN spokesman Hamadoun Toure said.

/... http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aXrcz4FUfa0w&pos=9

FRANCE24: Gbagbo in negotiations to surrender, French foreign minister says

Ivory Coast incumbent Laurent Gbagbo was negotiating the terms of his departure from power Tuesday in the wake of an assault by forces loyal to presidential rival Alassane Ouattara and backed by UN and French helicopter airstrikes.

(Video): http://www.france24.com/en/20110405-ivory-coast-presidential-palace-abidjan-heavy-fighting-ouattara-gbagbo

[pampango]

5. Ivory Coast's Gbagbo surrenders

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/04/05/ivory-coast-gbagbo-surrender.html

Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo has surrendered and asked for United Nations protection, says Reuters based on an internal UN document. "President Gbagbo has also surrendered and has asked UNOCI's protection," the document to UN staff said.

France's foreign minister said UN officials were demanding that Gbagbo renounce power in writing and formally recognize his rival Alassane Ouattara, the internationally backed winner of the November election that plunged the West African nation into chaos.

Forces loyal to Ouattara on Tuesday seized the presidential residence where Gbagbo tried to wrest last-ditch concessions, said a senior diplomat. Ouattara has urged his supporters to take Gbagbo alive.

Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the UN mission to Ivory Coast said the UN had received phone calls Tuesday from the three main Gbagbo-allied generals, saying they were planning to order their troops to stop fighting.