Ivorian President Gbagbo Under Attack From President-Elect’s Troops

Captives of Ouattara’s Troops (theaustralian.com.au)

Laurent Gbagbo, self-proclaimed president of Ivory Coast, is still resisting in the bunker where he was force to hide after attacks against his army’s logistics were launched on air and on the ground, in a last attempt to remove him from office and place in it the winner of the presidential runoff last year, Alassane Ouattara.

The fights have been intensifying during the last three days, with a peak on Wednesday when French authorities announced that negotiations with Gbagbo failed again, like many times before.

Ouattara’s forces stormed the bunker where Gbagbo went into hiding, with specific orders not to kill him. French military denied any involvement in the strikes against Gbagbo’s troops.

Heavy fire has been reported all over the centre of the capital of the country on Wednesday. UN helicopters, acting under a Security Council resolution, have bombed this week six depots in Abidjan.

The situation that broke out these days is the result of different failed attempts to settle peacefully the conflict.

Since the beginning of the year, African Union has dispatched various delegations to Abidjan to try to convince Gbagbo to step down and go into exile.

Fight in Ivory Coast (trust.org)

The military intervention option, tabled by Ecowas, a regional economic body,  had been dismissed in favor of other economic options that failed one by one.

As a consequence, the little clashes between the supporters of the two presidents became an all out war that claimed many lives and displaced about a million persons, who went to neighboring countries in order to save their lives.

Now Gbagbo in mounting a defense in his bunker. Ouattara’s men fear he will not surrender and will have to capture him. They also fear that killing him could cause immense frustration in the country and deepen the conflict state already existing.