Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
More gunfire shook Côte d’Ivoire’s main city on Thursday but Laurent Gbagbo remained holed up in his bunker, protected by about 200 men after clashes that forced the dramatic rescue of Japan’s envoy.
Bodies lay in the streets of Abidjan days into a military offensive to force Gbagbo to give up the presidency, with food stocks running low, water and power supplies erratic and security plummeting, witnesses said.
Residents hid in their homes in the Cocody suburb where the strongman was still hunkered down in the presidential residence after forces from internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara failed to remove him on Wednesday.
“This morning we are hearing strong explosions and firing,” a resident told Agence France-Presse (AFP) from the northern area as armoured vehicles carrying French and United Nations soldiers patrolled the Plateau suburb, where the presidential palace is based.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Gbagbo to quit power before it was “too late”, warning that he was facing his last chance for a “graceful” exit.
“It is absolutely necessary at this time that, before too late, he has to cede his power to the democratically elected leader, Mr Ouattara,” Ban said, adding: “It is his last opportunity to gracefully exit from this.”
On Wednesday, Ouattara fighters tried to storm the residence but had to pull back after heavy fighting in which the home of the Japanese ambassador was surrounded as Gbagbo’s fighters used it to launch rockets and cannon fire.
Ambassador Yoshifumi Okamura and several aides hid in a saferoom until French forces staged a dramatic helicopter rescue, extracting the group at about 11pm and moving them to a French military camp, officials said.
“There was no major fighting, and no injuries among the French soldiers involved,” French military spokesperson Colonel Thierry Burkhard said.
“In less than half an hour, the ambassador and his colleagues were evacuated to Port Bouet.”
Israel had also asked French forces to extract its diplomats from the conflict-torn city, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in Paris.
About 1 100 foreigners have been flown out of the commercial capital since Sunday, while 1 548 foreign citizens were being sheltered at the military base, a French force spokesman said.
Juppe said Gbagbo’s departure was inevitable although he could not say if it was a matter of hours or days.
“Today, at the moment, former president Gbagbo’s forces are reportedly fewer than 1 000, including 200 at his residence,” French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said.
The offensive launched by the Ouattara’s troops Wednesday “met with strong resistance from Gbagbo’s last loyal men”, a French government source told AFP.
Ouattara’s camp earlier said they were going to storm the bunker and forcibly remove Gbagbo to end his decade-long rule of the world’s number one cocoa producer after losing November elections.
In France a government source said Ouattara forces had launched a final assault after negotiations to persuade Gbagbo to give up power failed.
Gbagbo’s camp condemned the move as an “assassination attempt”.
UN peacekeeping department spokesperson Nick Birnback said Gbagbo remained in contact with international representatives.
“Discussions continue with the UN using its good offices to the fullest extent possible,” he said.
After calling for a ceasefire and retreating to the bunker with his wife Simone and a few others, Gbagbo insisted in a radio interview late Tuesday he would not accept he had lost the vote and he was prepared to die.
Gbagbo was elected in 2000 and postponed polls due in 2005 several times before allowing them to go ahead last year, only to reject the result issued by the election authority and backed by the United Nations.
Several hundred people have been killed in violence linked to the presidential standoff, with reports of massacres of hundreds in the west last week, while up to a million had fled their homes, according to UN figures.
The humanitarian situation in Abidjan was “absolutely dramatic”, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, with hospitals and public services not working and bodies lying in the streets.
“There are armed rebel groups — who don’t know on which side they are — who are looting not only private houses but also some stocks of humanitarian agencies, that’s unacceptable,” spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva.