Gbagbo seized by Ouattara forces
IVORY COAST, Abidjan : Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo and his wife Simone sit on a bed at the Hotel du Golf in Abidjan after their arrest on April 11, 2011. Ivory Coast leader Alassane Ouattara's forces, backed by French and UN troops, captured his besieged rival Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan today at the climax of a deadly five-month crisis. Gbagbo, who has held power since 2000 and stubbornly refused to admit defeat in November's presidential election, was detained and taken to his rival's temporary hotel headquarters, with his wife Simone and son Michel. AFP PHOTO / STR
What you need to know:
- French and United Nations troops help in capturing besieged politician
Abidjan
Côte d’Ivoire leader Alassane Ouattara’s forces, backed by French and UN troops, captured his besieged rival Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan on Monday at the climax of a deadly months-long crisis.
Gbagbo, who has held power since 2000 and stubbornly refused to admit defeat in November’s presidential election, was detained and taken to his rival’s temporary headquarters, with his wife Simone and son Michel.
“The nightmare is over,” Ouattara’s prime minister, former rebel leader Guillaume Soro, said on the Ouattara camp’s television channel.
Ouattara spokesperson Anne Ouloto said the former first couple had been brought to the Golf Hotel, where Ouattara’s camp was for months besieged by Gbagbo’s forces, around 1pm (1300 GMT), shortly after the arrest.
“He’s here with his wife and his son, Michel. I can see them now,” she said, speaking over the phone from the former lagoon-side resort, now turned into an armed camp protected by former rebel troops and UN peacekeepers.
The situation in other districts of Abidjan, some still controlled by Gbagbo loyalists, including the downtown business district of Plateau and nearby Cocody, was not immediately clear after Gbagbo’s arrest.
Earlier, witnesses had reported seeing pro-Ouattara forces entering Gbagbo’s besieged residential compound, from which they had been repeatedly repulsed, while French and UN armoured vehicles massed on a road nearby.
Destroy weapons
Troops from the cocoa-rich nation’s former colonial ruler France and from a UN peacekeeping force have been pounding Gbagbo’s forces since Sunday in a bid to destroy the heavy weapons they were reportedly using against civilians.
Bodies litter the streets of the west African nation’s commercial capital from days of street-to-street fighting, after Ouattara’s forces swept down from the north of the country in a lightning attack last week.
A witness said French helicopters “fired several missiles into the zone. A large plume of black smoke is rising from around the residence”. (AFP)
