Battle for Abidjan rages, carnage in western Ivory Coast

Heavy artillery fire and explosions shook downtown Abidjan yesterday on the third day of a fierce battle for the city, as rival forces were accused of massacring hundreds in western Ivory Coast.

Cornered, but clinging on, strongman Laurent Gbagbo brushed off calls by world leaders to step down amid an offensive by troops backing the internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan.

Reports of carnage, meanwhile, emerged from the western town of Duekoue where the International Red Cross said 800 died and the UN mission accuses fighters from both camps of mass killings.

Gbagbo has been holed up in the presidential palace and residence in Abidjan’s chic Cocody district, where several embassies are located.

Walls shook as mortar and other heavy arms fire broke out at 12.15 p.m. (GMT and local time) near the presidential palace, AFP journalists said.

Ouattara’s government declared a curfew from midnight yesterday until 6 a.m. today.

While Gbagbo’s camp claimed to have pushed back an assault last Friday, Ouattara’s fighters warned that the offensive “has not yet begun”.

“We are taking steps to weaken the enemy before mounting an assault,” said Captain Leon Kouakou Alla, spokesman for Ouattara’s defence ministry.

Weary with failed diplomatic efforts to resolve a post-election crisis, Ouattara’s army last Monday launched a lightning offensive across the country before arriving in Abidjan last Thursday.

Fierce fighting accompanied by loud explosions and bursts of machine gunfire sent residents of the city of five million people into lockdown, and some 1,400 foreigners sought refuge at a French military camp.

State television RTI, briefly captured by Ouattara’s army, was back on air yesterday.