Heavy weapons fire in pro-Gbagbo Abidjan district

Heavy weapons fire was heard yesterday in a district of Ivory Coast’s main city Abidjan where fighters loyal to deposed president Laurent Gbagbo have been holed up, residents and soldiers said.

“There is fighting taking place in Yopougon... It is still continuing,” a resident of the neighbourhood said.

“There are still some militiamen who will not listen. We are proceeding with our operation to comb the area” of Yopougon where pro-Gbagbo militia have refused to lay down arms, a spokesman for President Alassane Ouattara’s Republican Forces (FRCI) said.

“Public order must be re-established and imposed on those who do not want it,” a senior FRCI official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that the forces had come under fire yesterday when they tried to disarm militia.

A militiaman who was among 50 others who handed in their weapons on Saturday said the FRCI were trying to disarm the militia by force.

“We are trying to sensitise our members so that they lay down their weapons bit by bit, but the FRCI is charging in and wants to force them,” he said.

The vast Yopougon neighbourhood in northwestern Abidjan is the last pro-Gbagbo militiamen stronghold following Gbagbo’s arrest on April 11. Several hundred militiamen are believed to still be active in the district.

Government forces on Wednesday killed militia leader Ibrahim Coulibaly in the northern Abobo district after Mr Ouattara threatened to use force to disarm militia groups.

Mr Ouattara, internationally recognised as the winner of the November 28 elections, assumed the presidency after Mr Gbagbo was ousted for refusing to hand over power, plunging the country into a tense and violent crisis.

After taking refuge in an underground bunker in his residence, Mr Gbagbo was finally captured by Mr Ouattara’s forces after the UN and French troops bombarded the building.

Mr Gbagbo and his wife have since been placed under house arrest in different towns in the north of the country and the government has launched a probe against the toppled president and his associates.