Laurent Gbagbo,... President of Ivory Coast since 2000. Gbagbo lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and Laurent has refused to leave despite the international community's hemming, hawing, and broad hints...
Cote d'Ivoire's embattled leader, rampaged through the business district of the capital Abidjan, pillaging shops owned by foreigners.
Tuesday's violence followed a call on Friday by Ble Goude, the head of Gbagbo's youth wing, to resist what he called an insurgency seeking to depose Gbabgo and install rival Alassane Ouattara.
Ouattara is widely regarded as the winner of a November 28 poll, according to UN-certified results and the international community.
Gbagbo's Young Patriots have long been accused of xenophobic violence, including attacks against the country's
French community in 2004, on its large Burkinabe and Malian communities, as well as northern Ivorians with cultural ties to them.
Anti-foreigner sentiment is at the core of the troubles that have troubled Cote d'Ivoire for years and has worsened as most nations recognise Ouattara's win.
Ouattara himself was twice barred from running in previous polls because his father is from Burkina Faso.
Anti-foreigner sentiment
"I don't understand what happened. The youths arrived ... and starting destroying the things in my shop. They looted
everything and now I have nothing left," Senegal
... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees...
ese shopkeeper Ismael Bah told a Rooters news hound.
"What did I do? I'm not involved in politics," he added.
Xenophobia often flares up at troubled times in the country. In 2002, after a failed coup attempt against Gbagbo by northern soldiers, thousands of Burkinabes and Malians went into hiding because of attacks by youth gangs or police.
Youths loyal to Gbagbo also kidnapped two Ukranian mechanics working for the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society mission on Monday, but released them later in the afternoon, a UN front man told Rooters.
The Young Patriots had set up roadblocks, were searching vehicles for suspected "rebels," and prevented the movements of UN staff, as violence surged between gunnies from rival camps this week.
Gbagbo is furious with the UN mission for recognising Ouattara's victory over him.
He has accused the international body of backing rebels trying to oust him - a charge UN officials denounce as a lie meant to discredit them.