Ivory Coast Fighting Moves In on Defeated President

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110315/wl_time/08599205891600

Ivory Coast Fighting Moves In on Defeated President

By MONICA MARK / ABIDJAN Mark / Abidjan – Tue Mar 15, 7:15 am ET

Around dawn on Monday, residents in the Youpougon district of Abidjan, the main

town in Ivory Coast, believed that the much-feared civil war really had started

when they awoke to the boom of weapons and machine-gun fire. " The noise went on

forever, " says a 40-year-old resident, who asked to remain anonymous for his

safety. " The whole building was shuddering. "

Ivory Coast has been rocked by months of post-electoral turmoil after

presidential incumbent t Gbagbo refused to step down despite losing to

Alassane Ouattara in the November vote. The southwestern suburb of Youpougon

houses the residence of the country's army chief of staff - who remains loyal to

Gbagbo - and on Monday fighting was heaviest around there. At about the same

time, a base camp of youth groups loyal to Gbagbo also came under attack. " The

death toll is literally in the dozens. I challenge anyone to come and look at

the wreck of the camp this morning and tell me a single person survived the

attack, " says Tea Kambou, a resident on the neighboring street. (See pictures of

Ivory Coast postelection violence rising.)

State television, tightly controlled by Gbagbo, has denied that any fighting

took place around the army chief's compound. But residents say Monday's fighting

marks a sharp escalation in the months-long battle between Gbagbo and the

internationally recognized president-elect Alassane Ouattara. Observers have

warned that the post-electoral dispute threatens to re-ignite a 2002 civil war.

With Gbagbo ignoring the latest deadline set by the African Union (AU) on March

11 - the fourth time a high-level AU delegation has visited Ivory Coast since

the polls - his obstinacy may boost a burgeoning insurgency loyal to his

opponent.

The insurgents call themselves the " invisible commandos, " and their identity has

yet to be fully confirmed. Monday's battles are the first time they have pushed

out of the northern suburb of Abobo - where at least 400 have died in the

crossfire, according to the United Nations. The quartier's streets are spookily

deserted after almost all of its 200,000 residents have fled. On the night of

March 13, fighting was reported in the neighborhood of Adjame, a 2.5-mile swathe

of suburb linking Abobo and Youpougon. This points to a huge insurgent advance

southwards, bringing the combat within significant range of the presidential

palace where Gbagbo has hunkered down for months. (Is Ivory Coast doomed to

slide into civil war?)

And the violence hasn't been contained to Abidjan. New Force rebel soldiers, who

launched the 2002 civil war against Gbagbo that divided the country, have

marched on a southwards offensive. Prior to the November polls, government

services had begun to resume in the northern territory under the New Force's

control and the group had said it had disarmed. But on the afternoon of March

13, the town of Doke, along the Liberian border, became the fourth town to fall

to the rebels. " I left my fruit stall and ran home as soon as I heard gunfire, "

says market vendor Sia Ssatdou, 22, in Doke. " I thought, thank God my family

have already moved to Liberia. "

Ssatdou's family are among the nearly 100,000 people who have flooded the

neighboring country, according to the U.N., which is bracing for 150,000

refugees. Across Ivory Coast, some 400,000 have been displaced. Liberian

mercenaries fighting on both sides - although primarily for Gbagbo, according to

the U.N. and aid groups - are known to enter Ivory Coast using the heavily

forested area around Doke. The small dust-road town also lies only a few miles

from the strategically important town of Blolequin, which is heavily guarded by

forces loyal to Gbagbo. (See more on the Army mowing down female protesters.)

Despite the renewed conflict, U.N. mission chief Young-jin Choi said on Monday

that there were " promising signs which herald the beginning of the end, "

pointing to the increasing desperation in the tactics of pro-Gbagbo fighters,

and E.U. and U.S. sanctions that have brought the economy to a near-standstill

and put increasing pressure on Gbagbo to step down.

Relations between the incumbent and the international body have soured sharply

in recent months. Last week, Gbagbo announced a ban on U.N. military aircraft,

just as the organization was preparing to return Ouattara from an African Union

summit in Ethiopia. Pro-Gbagbo youth groups have been attacking U.N. workers,

abducting staff and ransacking and torching U.N. vehicles. The body's

once-ubiquitous white four-wheel drives are rarely seen around Abidjan these

days. And they are unlikely to make a comeback anytime soon, after a U.N.

staffer was beaten in front of his torched vehicle in the upmarket Cocody suburb

on Sunday. The organization warned last week that it is collecting evidence of

such acts, which it says constitute " war crimes. " (See " Ivory Coast's Power

Struggle: A Test for African Democracy. " )

As the violence all around them escalates, Ivorians can only hope that things

won't have to get worse before they get better.