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yesterday on the bunker where Laurent Gbagbo was defying efforts to force him to cede power, residents said.
“The fighting is terrible here, the explosions are so heavy my building is shaking,” Alfred Kouassi, who lives near Gbagbo’s residence in the commercial capital Abidjan, told Reuters.
“We can hear automatic gunfire and also the thud of heavy weapons. There’s shooting all over the place. Cars are speeding in all directions and so are the fighters,” he said.
He could see French tanks in the street but did not know whether they were taking part in the offensive. The French ambassador’s residence is close to Gbagbo’s.
The French military confirmed that fighting was under way around Gbagbo’s residence, but said that French troops in the city were not involved.
The fighting resumed for a third day after negotiations led by the United Nations and France to secure Gbagbo’s departure failed, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.
The besieged Cote d’Ivoire president Laurent Gbagbo told a French television station, LCI, that he would not recognise the victory of Alassane Ouattara who is being supported by France and largely accepted by the international community.
As the impasse continues in Cote d’Ivoire, “will he or will he not go” is the question that has been lingering for the last 48 hours on the lips of those opposed to Cote d’Ivoire’s embattled Gbagbo. Media reports yesterday morning indicated that the bombardments by the United Nations Operation in Cote d’Ivoire (Onuci) and the French forces against Gbagbo’s strongholds have not managed to force him to relinquish power.
Gbagbo therefore vowed not to use his own hands to sign surrender documents drafted by France. The surrender documents require him to acknowledge that Ouattara is Cote d’Ivoire’s new president.
Gbagbo’s position is the same as that of his close confidants, especially his special advisor Alain Toussaint and his government spokesman Ahoua Don Mello.
The former colonial power in Ivory Coast, France has taken a leading role in talks to persuade Gbagbo to hand over to rival Ouattara and end a four-month standoff over a contested election in November which UN-certified results say Ouattara won.
A spokeswoman for Ouattara’s forces said Ouattara’s fighters were storming Gbagbo’s residence, where Gbagbo has been holed up since Ouattara’s forces swept into Abidjan backed by helicopter strikes by the United Nations and France.
“They are in the process of entering the residence to seize Gbagbo,” Affousy Bamba told Reuters. “They have not taken him yet, but they are in the process.”
Residents, however, said militias close to Gbagbo and his presidential guard were putting up a stiff resistance. – Reuters, Xinhua.