In the Ivory Coast, an apparent winner

Baudelair Mieu, Olivier Monnier, and Pauline Bax (all splendid French names) have an article at Bloomberg.com about the situation in the Ivory Coast:

Ivory Coast forces backing election winner Alassane Ouattara said they seized the state broadcasting center, and attacked incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo’s residence and presidential palace, amid heavy fighting.
The Republican Forces now control Gbagbo’s residence in the Cocody neighborhood of Abidjan, the commercial capital, said Meite Sindou, a spokesman for Ouattara’s prime minister, Guillaume Soro. Explosions and gunfire continued to rock the district and plumes of smoke rose into the sky, residents said. Gbagbo’s whereabouts are unclear, a French diplomat said.
“Radio Television Ivorienne fell into our hands last night,” Sindou said in a phone interview today. Television broadcasts were halted at about midnight as heavy artillery fire and explosions shook buildings. The Republican Forces entered Abidjan late yesterday after an ultimatum for Gbagbo to accept his 28 November election defeat and step-down lapsed. The fighters had swept south from their base in the north of the country over the past two weeks, meeting little resistance from Gbagbo’s forces.
“I saw loads of Ouattara’s men when I peeked out the window this morning,” said Cocody resident Jean-Paul Turin as sustained machine gun fire was heard in the background. “They are extremely heavily armed. They were marching towards the state television and possibly the presidential residence.”
Cocoa prices have tumbled 10.3 percent in the past ten days as traders predict an imminent end to the impasse in the world’s largest cocoa producer. The crisis led the West African nation to default on its $2.3 billion Eurobond, which has rallied 32 percent in ten days as Ouattara’s forces advance.
The United Nations, the United States, the African Union, and the European Union all recognize Ouattara, 69, as the winner of the West African nation’s first vote in a decade, while Gbagbo, 65, refuses to step down, alleging voter fraud. Gbagbo’s whereabouts was unknown, foreign ministry spokesman for former colonial power France, Bernard Valero, told reporters in Paris. “The security forces around Mr. Gbagbo seem to have abandoned him, after he’d been abandoned by the army leadership,” Valero said. “This creates uncertainty and risk in the town, particularly for looting.”
Gunfire also rocked Treichville, which lies across a lagoon from the presidential palace and houses a base for the pro- Gbagbo Presidential Guard, according to resident Yao Brou. “Men in military clothes run across the street every now and then, and then I hear heavy artillery,” Brou said by phone. “I haven’t slept all night.”
There was a “mass exodus” out of Abidjan as civilians tried to avoid the clashes, the UN Refugee Agency said on its website. The UN said it had received “unconfirmed but worrying reports” of human rights violations committed by the Republican Forces in the western towns of Guiglo and Daloa and in Abidjan. The fighters may have arbitrarily arrested, abducted, and extorted money from civilians, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.
Pro-Gbagbo troops are have committed “daily” human rights violations, including the reported burning of two civilians alive, OCHA said.
Ouattara yesterday ordered a dusk-to-dawn curfew and the closure of all borders, according to a statement. Even before the Republic Forces entered Abidjan, the head of Gbagbo’s army, General Phillipe Mangou, sought refuge at the residence of the South African ambassador, according to the Pretoria-based Foreign Ministry said.
In another blow to Gbagbo, General Edouard Tiape Kassarate, head of the military police, defected to Ouattara’s administration at its headquarters in the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, said Alain Lobognon, an adviser to Soro, in a telephone interview yesterday.
“I’m not sure Gbagbo is in control any longer,” said Rinaldo Depagne, a Dakar-based analyst for International Crisis Group. “The first step for a peaceful outcome is Gbagbo coming and saying ‘I quit’.”
Cocoa for May delivery gained fell for the fifth day in a row, dropping $24, or 0.8 percent, to $2,928 per metric ton as of 12:14 p.m. in London trading. The price for the beans slumped to an eleven-week low yesterday on hopes for a quick resumption in exports, which had been crippled by European Union sanctions. Ivory Coast’s defaulted dollar-denominated bond jumped 5.2 percent to 49.842 cents on the dollar at 11:17 a.m. in Abidjan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
At least 494 people have died in the conflict so far, the UN said in an e-mailed statement. Retreating Liberian mercenaries committed arbitrary executions and looted towns, especially around the western town of Guiglo, it said.
African Union Commission President Jean Ping called on Gbagbo to “immediately” step down and hand power to Ouattara, according to an e-mailed statement today.
Gbagbo still has “an opportunity to step aside and avoid bloodshed,” Johnnie Carson, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told reporters in Washington. If he doesn’t, he will be held accountable for violence in the city, Carson said.