Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo was arrested yesterday after French armored vehicles closed in on the compound where he has been holed up in a bunker.
A column of more than 30 French armored vehicles moved in on Gbagbo’s residence in central Abidjan after helicopter gunships attacked the compound overnight.
“Yes, he has been arrested,” said Affoussy Bamba, a spokeswoman for Ivorian president-elect Alassane Ouattara.
Earlier, a Gbagbo adviser in Paris had said that French special forces had detained Gbagbo after breaking into the compound with tanks.
“Gbagbo has been arrested by French special forces in his residence and has been handed over to the rebel leaders,” Toussaint Alain said.
Gbagbo’s spokesman in Ivory Coast Ahoua Don Mello said: “President Laurent Gbagbo came out of his bunker and surrendered to the French without opposing resistance.”
However, a French government source denied that its troops arrested Gbagbo, after troops loyal to Ouattara stormed his headquarters.
“Mr Gbagbo was arrested by Mr Ouattara’s troops, that is true, but not by French special forces, who did not go into the enclosure of [Gbagbo’s] residence,” the source said.
Earlier, witnesses had reported seeing pro-Ouattara forces entering Gbagbo’s besieged residential compound, while French and UN armored vehicles deployed on a road leading to the complex.
Bamba said Gbagbo had been taken to the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, where Ouattara has had his headquarters since the presidential election last November.
Gbagbo had refused to step down after Ouattara won the election, according to results certified by the UN, reigniting a civil war that has claimed more than a thousand lives and uprooted a million people.
Residents reported heavy fighting yesterday morning between forces loyal to Ouattara and those backing Gbagbo around Abidjan’s Cocody and Plateau districts, still controlled by forces loyal to Gbagbo.
Hundreds of fresh pro-Ouattara troops massed at a base camp just north of Abidjan, where a small bus arrived, filled with new Kalashnikov rifles still in their transparent blue wrappers.
The French armored vehicles, each carrying between four to eight men, left their base in the south and headed toward downtown Abidjan early yesterday.
Now that Gbagbo has surrendered, Ouattara’s ability to unify the West African country may be undermined by reports of atrocities against civilians since his forces charged into Abidjan. Ouattara’s camp has denied involvement.
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