French forces wearing night vision goggles rappelled from a helicopter to rescue the Japanese ambassador and seven others, France’s foreign minister said yesterday, as Ivory Coast’s strongman leader remained in an underground bunker amid the fighting.
Forces allied with internationally recognized Ivory Coast president-elect Alassane Ouattara have stormed the gates of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo’s home, but are fearful of killing the entrenched leader and stoking the rage of his supporters. About 46 percent of Ivorians voted for Gbagbo in the November election that unleashed political chaos.
Gbagbo has made an art of staying in power years past the end of his legal mandate, and is now pushing the envelope, fighting for each day, even each hour.
“He will not surrender,” said Meite Sindou, a defense spokesman for Ouattara, the man recognized worldwide as the democratically elected president of Ivory Coast. “We will have to take him.”
Wednesday began with the boldest attempt yet to penetrate Gbagbo’s inner sanctum as fighters loyal to Ouattara made it as far as the gate of the presidential mansion he has occupied for the last decade. They attacked it with a barrage of fire, and residents reported hearing concussive blasts.
They breached the property’s perimeter only to be forced to retreat in the face of the heavy artillery unleashed by the ruler’s inner circle of guards.
Amid the fighting late on Wednesday, French troops rescued the Japanese ambassador and seven others after fighters attacked them. In a video provided by the French military, the forces are seen rappelling from a helicopter with night vision goggles.
“Mercenaries took over my residence, but in the end I was saved by French troops,” said Yoshifumi Okamura, Japan’s ambassador to the Ivory Coast.
Heavy arms fire was heard across Abidjan overnight, but yesterday hundreds of people ventured out despite the dangers in search of water as UN helicopters circled in the air.
Ouattara has pleaded with the international community for months to intervene and remove Gbagbo by force, arguing he wouldn’t leave any other way.
Despite losing the election, Gbagbo still controls the Ivorian army and has repeatedly used its arsenal of heavy artillery to attack areas of Abidjan where people voted for his opponent. Security forces are accused of opening fire with a mounted machine gun on a group of unarmed women and lobbing mortars into a market.
Finally on Monday, UN attack helicopters acting on a UN Security Council resolution bombarded six arms depots in Abidjan — including a cache inside the presidential compound.
“Obviously they didn’t get all of it,” said a senior diplomat who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. “When they came after him, he pulled out more stuff. Remember, he had a long time to prepare for this.”
Among the preparations was the choice of where Gbagbo would make his last stand. He is believed to be holed up in a tunnel originally built to connect the president’s home and the adjacent residence of the French ambassador, Sindou said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique