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Gbagbo has refused to step down despite losing an election in
November last year. |
Ally Coulibaly, appointed by Gbagbo's rival, Alssane Ouattara, told French radio: "I believe Laurent Gbagbo is alive. I have learned that he negotiating his surrender. Abidjan has become a rumour mill and I do not want to add to the disinformation. What I have learned is that since yesterday he (Gbagbo) has been seeking to negotiate. It is not too late."
Forces loyal to Ouattara,
Ivory Coast's internationally recognised president, earlier said they had captured Mr Gbagbo's Abidjan residence. Heavy weapons fire rocked the economic capital early on Tuesday, after UN and French helicopters last night attacked targets near the presidential residence. Mr Gbagbo's presidential palace and two military camps under his control, were struck, the UN confirmed, in retaliation for "reckless and mindless" attacks on civilians and UN personnel.
Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General, said forces were engaged in a joint "military operation to prevent the use of heavy weapons which threaten the civilian population". Gbagbo loyalists also wounded 11 UN peacekeepers in sniper, mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attacks on the headquarters of the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) and on patrols dispatched to protect civilians, Mr Ban said. The strikes were carried out by helicopters from the French force Licorne, acting under a UN Security Council resolution from last year, and by Ukrainian MiG-24 helicopters controlled by UNOCI, acting under last week's resolution 1975.
Hamadou Toure, the UN's chief spokesman in Ivory Coast, told The Daily Telegraph care was being taken to ensure civilians were not being harmed. "Our mandate is to protect innocent lives and that is what we are doing," he said. Choi Young-jin, the UN's special representative in Ivory Coast, said UN forces were now living "under siege, in a bunker" because of deliberate targeting by Mr Gbagbo's supporters. It emerged on Monday night that about five people, including two French nationals, had also been kidnapped by armed men at the Novotel hotel in Abidjan.
Mr Gbagbo, Ivory Coast's president since 2000, has refused to step down despite losing an election in November last year. Alassane Ouattara, the internationally-recognised victor, on Monday launched what he promised would be a final "rapid assault" on Mr Gbagbo's positions in Abidjan. Guillaume Soro, Mr Ouattara's prime minister and commander of the "forces nouvelles", said Mr Gbagbo's men had begun to "panic" and he was confident the battle could be won quickly. Groups of soldiers were yesterday moving towards Mr Gbagbo's residence and presidential palace. Apollinaire Yapi, a spokesman for Mr Soro, said 9,000 soldiers were taking part. "With the support we have from UN forces, it could be over by morning," he said. Mr Gbagbo has the backing of 2,000 well-armed republican guards, and supporters who have formed a human shield around his residence.
Mr Ouattara is still determined to capture Mr Gbagbo alive. "The weapons are not directed against Mr Gbagbo as such, they are against the soldiers who are defending him," the spokesman said. "If the soldiers are defeated, we don't have to kill the man and he can be tried." Last week's UN resolution suggested Mr Gbagbo may have committed crimes against humanity and raised the prospect of his facing trial at the international criminal court.
Mr Ban on Monday night stressed the UN was not itself seeking to topple Mr Gbagbo. "UNOCI is not a party to the conflict," he insisted, adding that the helicopter strikes were merely "in self defence and to protect civilians". France, which has extensive interests in Ivory Coast and 12,000 nationals in the country, on Monday bolstered its troops by another 150 to 1,650, having already added 300 to its deployment at the weekend. 1,900 foreigners are under French military protection in Abidjan and 447 have already left Ivory Coast, a French military spokesman said.
The French contingent, which is part of a 9,000-strong UN force, has set up two more bases to safeguard civilians. On Monday it began evacuating the first groups out of the city's airport, which it now controls. The UN High Commission for Refugees warned that as many as a quarter of a million refugees could flee across the border to Liberia to escape the violence. Aid agencies said 100,000 refugees had already made the crossing.
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