Article

2011-03-12 Africa Subsaharan

[The Nation (Nairobi)] Fresh fighting rocked Cote d'Ivoire just hours after the African Union declared Alassane Ouattara the duly elected president, a decision angrily rejected by

Laurent Gbagbo's
... 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...
camp.
"Yeah! Why should he get to be president just because he got more votes? It ain't fair!"
Residents reported heavy arms fire in Tiebissou, a town near the line between zones controlled by the country's rival factions and near Cote d'Ivoire's political capital Yamoussoukro.

"Heavy arms fire started toward 8pm," one resident told AFP by phone, adding that the firing had continued into the night.

Two other witnesses confirmed the report, one of whom also spoke of sporadic fire from Kalashnikov assault rifles.

Hours earlier, in Addis Ababa, the African Union, having spent months trying to broker a resolution to the crisis, confirmed Ouattara's election as president last November.

"The measures that have been announced are binding," Ouattara said from Addis Ababa.

"Very soon, Laurent Gbagbo will have to leave the office he has usurped since November 28," he added.

Ouattara said the AU panel had asked him to form a broad government and provide the incumbent Gbagbo with an honourable exit.

"I have accepted to do that in the interest of peace," he said.

But he made it clear that it would not be a 50-50 power-sharing arrangement.

A front man for Gbagbo however rejected the AU panel's proposals even before the formal meeting got under way.

"What is on offer is power-sharing and the very principle of it is unacceptable," Gbagbo front man Ahoua Don Mello said from Abidjan.

And former prime minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan, who chairs Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front and is part of the delegation he sent to Addis Ababa, raised the spectre of violence if the world tried to impose Ouattara.

Posted by Fred 2011-03-12 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11142 views ] Top

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