Pro-Ouattara fighters seize Côte d'Ivoire capital

[News_Editor]

Pro-Ouattara fighters seize Côte d'Ivoire capital

2011-03-31 02:14:03 GMT+7 (ICT)

YAMOUSSOUKRO, COTE D'IVOIRE (BNO NEWS) -- Forces loyal to UN-backed presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara have captured Côte d'Ivoire's capital Yamoussoukro, the BBC reported Wednesday.

This is a symbolic victory after the political turmoil began last December when outgoing President Laurent Gbagbo, who was defeated in the November run-off elections by opposition candidate Ouattara, refused to step down despite the approval from the UN and the international community.

"People are in the streets waiting for them, clapping for them," a Yamoussoukro resident told the BBC's Newshour programme.

"There are no soldiers for Laurent Gbagbo in the town now," he said.

Despite Gbagbo's ceasefire plea, Ouattara's fighters marched on towns to the west and north of the capital. They managed to capture the key towns Daloa and Duekoue in the west and Bondoukou in the east.

According to the BBC, an estimated 40,000 people have taken refuge in a church compound in Duekoue to escape the fighting.

The other main target under immediate threat is the port of San Pedro in the south-west. It was reported that Soubre, the nearest town to San Pedro, had been seized by Ouattara's fighters, which could allow the fighters to start shipping the country's main export, cocoa.

The U.N. spokesman's office announced that the Security Council will hold an urgent meeting on the country's situation on Wednesday afternoon.

More than 400 people have died in the violent crisis stemming from the December 2010 presidential elections which were meant to be the culminating point in reunifying a country split by civil war in 2002 into a Government-controlled south and a rebel-held north. Some 370,000 people have been internally displaced and over 70,000 more have fled to neighboring Liberia due to violence.

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