THE LOSER of Ivory Coast’s presidential election last year, Laurent Gbagbo, was arrested yesterday after forces belonging to president-elect Alassane Ouattara entered the compound where he had been holed up for the past week.
Former president Mr Gbagbo and his wife, Simone, were in the custody of Mr Ouattara’s army at a hotel in Abidjan, the economic capital. The UN’s peacekeeping force in the country had acceded to a request from Mr Gbagbo to ensure his and his wife’s security, it said.
The former president’s capture, carried out with the backing of French soldiers, brought to an end a week-long siege at his residence, where fierce fighting took place as Mr Ouattara’s forces closed in after a swift offensive that gave them control over much of the country.
Mr Gbagbo had resisted international pressure to step down after losing a presidential election last November, but his army was overwhelmed by Mr Ouattara’s forces, aided in Abidjan by UN attacks on Mr Gbagbo’s heavy weaponry.
The head of UN peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, said there was still fighting in Ivory Coast, as there remained “pockets of resistance”, but he hoped that would soon end. “The chief of Gbagbo forces . . . called us to say that he wants to surrender the weapons,” Mr Le Roy said.
The fighting has provoked a humanitarian crisis in Ivory Coast, with more than a million people thought to have been displaced. Aid agencies say that Ivorians arriving in neighbouring Liberia are living in appalling conditions, while Abidjan’s transformation into a war zone in the past fortnight has meant its residents have been confined to their homes, unable to buy food.
The circumstances of Mr Gbagbo’s capture gave rise to dispute last night, with the ex-president’s spokesman saying he was arrested by French special forces and handed over to Mr Ouattara’s army. This was later denied by the French defence ministry, which said soldiers belonging to France’s “Licorne” force supported Mr Ouattara’s men but did not enter the residence and did not arrest Mr Gbagbo.
“Just after 3pm, the ex-president Laurent Gbagbo handed himself over to the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast. At no moment did French forces enter either the garden or the residence of Gbagbo,” French armed forces spokesman Thierry Burkhard said.
France, the former colonial power, has more than 1,600 troops in Ivory Coast and took a lead role in efforts to persuade Mr Gbagbo to relinquish power. Shortly after the news broke of Mr Gbagbo’s arrest, Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said the French president had just had a long telephone conversation with Mr Ouattara.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said Mr Gbagbo’s arrest was a “signal to dictators and tyrants throughout the region and around the world” that they could not ignore the results of free and fair elections and that “there will be consequences for those who cling to power”.
Mr Ouattara will face a daunting task to unite a country riven by recent strife, with his own forces’ credibility undermined by reports of atrocities.