Defiant Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo’s most notorious lieutenant on Wednesday urged the strongman’s diehard supporters to launch an unarmed assault on rival Alassane Ouattara’s UN-defended base.
West African diplomatic moves to save the fragile country from civil war took on new urgency when Gbagbo’s “Street General,” Charles Ble Goude, told youths to storm Ouattara’s heavily protected Abidjan hotel headquarters.
Ouattara’s new UN Ambassador Youssoufou Bamba, meanwhile, gave a stark warning as he received his credentials from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“We are on the brink of genocide, something should be done,” he said.
And the chief UN peacekeeper, Alain Le Roy, accused Gbagbo’s state media of “inciting hatred” against UN troops to turn the population against them and make their already dangerous mission impossible.
Both Gbagbo and Ouattara claim to have won Ivory Coast’s Nov. 28 run-off election, but only the latter has been recognized as president by the world community, including the ECOWAS regional group, the UN and the EU.
Gbagbo’s forces dominate the south, home to the world’s largest cocoa-exporting industry and the commercial capital Abidjan.
His troops have cornered -Ouattara’s shadow government in his former campaign headquarters, a luxury golf resort on the outskirts of the city protected by a cordon of 800 UN peacekeepers and supplied by helicopter.
“From Jan. 1, I, Charles Ble Goude and the youth of Ivory Coast are going to liberate the Golf Hotel with our bare hands,” the leader of Gbagbo’s radical Young Patriots told a cheering crowd in Abidjan.
Political showman Ble Goude is best known for stoking bloody anti-French riots in 2004, a role that saw him placed under UN sanctions.
Gbagbo has ordered French and UN troops to leave Ivory Coast — a demand they have rejected, insisting they recognize only Ouattara’s rule — and the UN “Blue Helmets” face growing pressure around the city.
On Tuesday, a Bangladeshi soldier was wounded by a machete blow during a mob attack and a UN truck was burnt out by pro-Gbagbo demonstrators.
The UN estimates that at least 173 people have been killed in post-election violence, many dragged from their homes at night by pro-Gbagbo forces, while more than 19,000 refugees have fled the country.
Three West African heads of state flew to Ivory Coast on Tuesday to warn Gbagbo to hand over power to his internationally recognized rival or face military action, but left without a clear result, promising to return.
“We are still talking,” said Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, chairman of the regional bloc ECOWAS and leader of its military powerhouse. “People are negotiating. We are discussing. That is why they are going back.”
The foreign minister of Cape Verde, one of the states that delivered the ultimatum, said the region had dropped the threat of invasion “for now,” but ECOWAS and Nigerian officials confirmed military planning had begun.
“The mediators’ mission confirmed that Laurent Gbagbo is no longer president; it is only his departure that is being negotiated,” Ouattara spokesman Patrick Achi said. “The military option stays on the table.”
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
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