Rebels fighting to install internationally recognized Ivorian president Alassane Ouattara began besieging the main city of Abidjan yesterday after seizing a key seaport overnight and the hometown of the country’s entrenched ruler.
UN radio announced that the port of San Pedro, 300km west of Abidjan, was taken late on Wednesday. Residents said by telephone that soldiers retreated in trucks while firing into the air as the rebels moved into San Pedro, the world’s biggest cocoa exporting port.
In Abidjan, rebels already in control of several northern districts of the city attacked a prison and freed the inmates, a rebel commander said.
The rebels also advanced into Yopougon, a district of Abidjan that fervently supports incumbent but disputed Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo, witnesses said.
ROADBLOCKS
Advancing on foot while firing into the air, the rebels set up roadblocks on one of Yopougon’s main thoroughfares and had been battling with police since early yesterday morning, said a local resident who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.
Fighters took San Pedro in the early hours of the morning after sweeping southwards from strongholds in the north since Monday, seizing several other towns that had been under the control of forces loyal to Gbagbo.
Ouattara’s camp, meanwhile, warned Gbagbo to step down, saying otherwise their next target would be Abidjan.
“They have total control of the town since 4am,” a resident in San Pedro said. “They launched an offensive between 10pm and 1am and afterwards they carried out searches. Currently they are patrolling the town on board four-by-fours armed with Kalashnikovs” and rocket-launchers.
“They control the port, all the strategic sectors of the town,” he said.
Ivory Coast is the world’s top cocoa producer and exporter, but the industry has been strangled by international sanctions trying to choke off Gbagbo’s economic power and force him to step down from the presidency.
Gbagbo, who refuses to accept he lost November elections, came under more pressure when the US on Wednesday followed the EU in imposing sanctions against him and his leadership.
In San Pedro, pro-Ouattara fighters had met with local government authorities late on Wednesday, an official said.
“They came to pay a visit at the home of the prefect and assured us they were there for the security of the town,” the official from the prefecture said.
Witnesses reported militia supporting Gbagbo had looted several businesses and burned a police station after stealing weapons.
JUBILANT SCENES
The noose tightened around the embattled strongman’s regime as pro-Ouattara fighters seized the political capital Yamoussoukro on Wednesday, reportedly to jubilant scenes. From there they pushed further south until by late on Wednesday they had entered San Pedro.
Ouattara’s camp, weary of four months’ of fruitless diplomatic initiatives, declared all peaceful solutions “exhausted” as they launched their offensive on Monday.
They now controlled three quarters of the country, said Ally Coulibaly, Ivorian ambassador to France — appointed by Ouattara.
Late on Wednesday, Ouattara’s prime minister Guillaume Soro told France24: “Gbagbo has only a few hours to leave, otherwise we will march on Abidjan and it will become a lot more complicated for him.”
A UN resolution, proposed by France and Nigeria, made the first explicit call by the 15-nation UN Security Council for Gbagbo to stand down in favor of Ouattara, whom the UN and virtually all countries say won the presidential election.
It authorized a travel ban and an assets freeze against Gbagbo, his wife Simone and three of his closest associates.
“Gbabgo must go, it is the only way to avoid a full-fledged civil war and maybe bloody violence in the streets of Abidjan,” French Ambassador Gerard Araud said.
“The unthinkable is taking place before our eyes,” Nigerian Ambassador Joy Ogwu said, highlighting killings and widespread rapes.
“The unrest is spiraling out of control,” she told the council.
RIGHTS ABUSES
Election-linked violence has left at least 460 people dead with as many as 1 million fleeing their homes, UN agencies said, amid allegations of human rights abuses on both sides.
South Africa, which voted in favor of UN sanctions on Gbagbo, warned yesterday that Ivory Coast was “rapidly sliding back into a civil war.”
“The continued senseless killing of civilians, threats and acts of intimidation, as well as the rising numbers of refugees, is a serious violation of human rights,” it said, calling for an end to the violence.
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