[ 2011-04-07 ]

Dramatic rescue in Ivorian city
French forces have snatched the Japanese
ambassador to safety from near the besieged
presidential residence in Ivory Coast's main city,
Abidjan.

Soldiers exchanged fire with guards at the
compound where Laurent Gbagbo is holed up,
refusing to stand down as leader, French officials
said.

His rival Alassane Ouattara's forces surround the
residence, where fighting continued through the
night.

Mr Gbagbo refuses to step down despite being
beaten in November's election.

He says he won, but the Ivorian election
commission said he lost and the UN certified that
result.

The ballot had been intended to reunite the former
French colony, which split in two following a
northern rebellion in 2002.

'A lot of blood'

The BBC's Andrew Harding, near Abidjan, says the
city was lit up by explosions overnight, with much
but by no means all the fighting around the
presidential residence.

He says although Mr Gbagbo's senior generals have
given up the fight, his armed supporters continue
to put up strong resistance in several
neighbourhoods.

On Wednesday, pro-Ouattara forces were driven back
after launching what they said would be a decisive
assault on the presidential compound.

Mr Gbagbo says his rival's troops want to kill
him, but they say they have strict orders to
capture him alive.

Late on Wednesday, French helicopters moved in to
evacuate the Japanese ambassador, Okamura
Yoshifumi, after his home near the presidential
residence was invaded by unidentified gunmen.

The envoy and his aides were whisked to safety in
a French military camp at Port-Bouet, south of
Abidjan, the French embassy said.

The French said they had acted after a request
from Japan and the UN.

During the operation, French forces exchanged fire
with fighters defending Mr Gbagbo's residence.

A number of other diplomatic missions are based in
the besieged area.

France has had troops in Ivory Coast alongside UN
peacekeepers since the country's civil war almost
a decade ago.

Mr Yoshifumi told AFP news agency a group of
"mercenaries" had occupied his residence for five
hours.

He said the gunmen had launched rockets and fired
machine-guns and cannon from the building, while
he and others sheltered in a room.

The envoy said he later found four employees,
security guards and a gardener, were missing and
there was "a lot of blood" in the house.

Civilians under siege

Speaking by phone to French radio on Wednesday, Mr
Gbagbo denied he was hiding in a bunker.

"I am in the residence - the residence of the
president of the republic," he said.

Earlier he rejected claims he was surrendering,
saying he was only negotiating a truce.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Mr
Gbagbo's "intransigence" had stopped UN-brokered
talks to negotiate an orderly departure.

On Monday, UN attack helicopters bombarded Gbagbo
arms sites in Abidjan, including inside the
presidential compound.

Pro-Gbagbo forces had been accused of firing heavy
weaponry at UN peacekeepers and into areas of the
city that voted for his opponent.

As the rival presidents' forces continue to fight
over the presidency, concern is growing over the
humanitarian situation in Ivory Coast.

The battle for Abidjan has now been raging for a
week and it is unsafe for many of the city's four
million people to go outside.

The main banks have been closed for nearly two
months and few people have the funds to stock up
on food.

The UN refugee agency reports an increase in the
number of Ivorians crossing the border into
neighbouring Liberia.

Source - JoyOnline

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