Laurent Gbagbo,... President-for-Life of Ivory Coast since 2000. Gbagbo lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and Laurent refused to leave despite the international community's hemming, hawing, and broad hints...
La Belle France said on Thursday, after a week of heavy fighting
... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting...
to unseat him.
Forces loyal to rival presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara have been waging an offensive in Abidjan to topple Gbagbo, who has refused to cede power after losing last November's election to Ouattara, according to results certified by the United Nations.
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
"At this moment the military situation is as follows; the UNOCI (United Nations mission in Ivory Coast) troops have surrounded in a limited area the last defenders of the previous president Gbagbo," French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet told the French Senate on Thursday.
A United Nations front man in Abidjan told Rooters that the United Nations had sent forces into the Cocody neighborhood, where Gbagbo is believed to be holed up in his heavily defended compound, but did not plan to intervene.
"We have sent a patrol to Cocody and the surrounding area, but it is not to intervene," UN front man Hamadoun Toure told Rooters by telephone. "I am not aware that Ouattara has requested our intervention at this stage."
Ouattara's envoy to the United Nations, Youssoufou Bamba, said on Thursday he expected the standoff to be over soon, adding that Ouattara might within days end a ban on cocoa exports which he imposed in January to squeeze Gbagbo's access to funds. Ivory Coast is the world's leading cocoa producer.
"The standoff will be over very soon," he told a news conference in New York. "No negotiation."
Earlier, French forces hit military vehicles belonging to troops loyal to Gbagbo during a helicopter-borne mission that rescued Japan's ambassador to the West African country.
The French went in overnight after Gbagbo soldiers broke into the Japanese residence, where ambassador Yoshifumi Okamura and seven of his staff had taken shelter in a safe room, French armed forces front man Thierry Burkhard said.
Bamba said on Thursday India's ambassador to Ivory Coast was also being evacuated, while Israel and the United States had asked for help with evacuations.