Disputed Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo was negotiating the terms of his departure at press time last night following a fierce assault by forces loyal to his rival, backed by UN and French helicopter airstrikes.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said two Ivorian generals were involved in negotiating the surrender of Gbagbo, who had clung to power since refusing to concede he lost last November’s presidential election to Alassane Ouattara.
“As we speak, we are speaking to two generals to negotiate President Gbagbo’s surrender,” Fillon told members of parliament in Paris.
A Gbagbo spokesman said the incumbent was negotiating the terms of his exit based on the recognition of Ouattara as president. The spokesman said the negotiations covered security guarantees for Gbagbo and his relatives.
Gbagbo’s forces earlier called for a ceasefire and French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said the West African country’s crisis could be resolved in a matter of hours.
Forces loyal to presidential claimant Ouattara had launched a major assault on Gbagbo’s last strongholds in Abidjan, driving home their campaign to oust him.
An eyewitness said yesterday that calm had returned to the area surrounding the presidential palace after days of fierce machinegun and heavy weapons fire — a sign that the conflict could be nearing an end.
“We are in a situation where everything could be resolved in the next few hours,” Longuet told a news conference.
The UN peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast, supported by the French military, had targeted Gbagbo’s heavy weapons capabilities on Monday with attack helicopters after civilians were killed in shelling.
Attacks centered on military bases in the city, but also on rocket launchers “very close” to Gbagbo’s Cocody residence, UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said on Monday.
“It looks like Gbagbo is trying to negotiate his way out. What he can offer is another matter. He is in the process of being militarily defeated so his negotiating position is much weaker than a couple of weeks ago,” said Hannah Koep, Ivory Coast analyst at London-based consultancy Control Risks.
The conflict in the West African cocoa-growing nation pushed cocoa prices lower yesterday as dealers bet on a swift end to Gbagbo’s rule and a resumption of exports. The country’s defaulted US$2.3 billion Eurobond rose as the assault raised expectations for repayment.
In the north of Abidjan, -bullet-riddled bodies lay by the side of the main motorway near the largely pro-Gbagbo neighborhood of Yopougon, evidence of recent fighting between Ouattara and Gbagbo forces, a witness said.
An armored personnel carrier was pushed across the roadway, still in flames and residents who had emerged from their houses to find water said they had heard machinegun and heavy weapons fire through the night.
The UN human rights office in Geneva yesterday expressed concern over the killings of dozens of civilians in Abidjan, amid reports of heavy weapons used in populated areas.
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