Video Shows Capture of Ivory Coast's Gbagbo

Despite claims in earlier reports that French special forces and helicopters were involved in the capture of Laurent Gbagbo, newly released video shows Ivory Coast rebels making the final push into his compound and capturing Gbagbo.



He's since been moved to a villa where he is being kept under guard before he is expected to face justice both under national and international law:

Ivory Coast's new President Alassane Ouattara has said all sides in the country's conflict must face justice.

He said he would ask the International Criminal Court to probe massacres in which both his forces and those of his rival Laurent Gbagbo were suspected.

Mr Gbagbo was captured on Monday by Mr Ouattara's forces after he refused to accept he lost elections in November.

He will now face charges at a "national level and an international level", Mr Ouattara said.

At a news conference in the main city of Abidjan, Mr Ouattara said Mr Gbagbo had been moved to a secure location.

Ouattara won the election in November, and Gbagbo refused to relinquish power, setting off the conflict that claimed hundreds of lives and caused incalculable damage to the economy.

The new president also intends to impose justice equally on those who committed crimes in the name of Gbagbo and his own supporters, and also sought to clamp down on looters taking advantage of the security vacuum. He's saying all the right things for the moment, but time will tell whether he turns out to be what Ivory Coast needs.

Sanctions are likely to be lifted against the country now that Gbagbo is out of power.

French Special Forces Capture and Hand Over Gbagbo To Ivory Coast Opposition

The capital of Ivory Coast is rife with ruined buildings, damaged vehicles, and the remains of the dead from heavy fighting between Laurent Gbagbo's loyalists and Alassane Dramane Ouattara's opposition groups.

The UN and French forces have not been playing peacekeepers so much as pushing to rid the African nation of Gbagbo, who has refused to step down after losing elections in November to Ouattara.



French forces have apparently captured Gbagbo, after assaulting his last bastion with tanks and special forces.

French special forces have detained Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo and handed him to leaders of the rebel opposition, after French tanks forced their way into his residence, a Gbagbo adviser in France said.

"Gbagbo has been arrested by French special forces in his residence and has been handed over to the rebel leaders," Toussaint Alain told Reuters.

The opposition, UN and French forces have worn away Gbagbo's loyalists until there were fewer than 1,000 left. Waning support helped undermine Gbagbo's regime, but that didn't stop him from causing incalculable damage to the country and its economy.

The next step will be to see how Ouattara handles Gbagbo, and how the new government takes shape.

UPDATE:
Video has emerged from his arrest/handover to Ivory Coast:



Looks like someone whose former lifestyle is now a dim memory and whose future is anything but sunny. He knows that he's in for a rough time and that by staying on in power well beyond his electoral mandate, he's won few friends.

Gbagbo's Regime Enters Death Spiral

Laurent Gbagbo's regime has entered its death spiral, and opposition forces have closed the noose around Gbagbo's residence. Reports indicate that he's in a bunker and surrounded and while he claims not to want to die, he's refusing to cede power.

Forces loyal to Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara on Wednesday stormed the residence of incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo who has refused to cede power, a spokeswoman for Ouattara forces told Reuters.

"Yes they (Ouattara forces) are in the process of entering the residence to seize Gbagbo, they have not taken him yet, but they are in the process, they are in the building," Affousy Bamba told Reuters.

Residents around the presidential palace in Abidjan's Cocody neighborhood said they heard heavy gunfire and loud explosions coming from the direction of the palace.

"I have seen from my building the FRCI fighters (Ouattara forces) in pickups and 4x4 jeeps rushing toward Gbagbo's residence, weapons in their hands," Alfred Kouassi, who lives near Gbagbo's residence in Cocody, told Reuters.

"We can hear automatic gunfire and also the thuds of heavy weapons coming from the residence," he said.

Gbagbo representative Toussaint Alain, speaking to The Associated Press in a phone interview from Paris, said Gbagbo's residence was being bombarded by the French army, but the French military denied the claim.

A negotiated end to the fighting has failed, and Gbagbo has refused to cede power, despite losing the November election to Ouattara.

France is intervening in Ivory Coast, and is backed by UN mandate so as to protect civilian populations.



Gbagbo is attempting to use French intervention as a means to rally support - noting French colonialism.

Noose Tightens Around Ivory Coast's Gbagbo; Gbagbo Seeks Exit Strategy

Laurent Gbagbo lost elections in November to Alassane Dramane Ouattara, but chose to remain in power. That has led to an ongoing uprising, and now the UN and France are assisting Ouattara's supporters in regime change.



They're helping to force Gbagbo from power, and now that Gbagbo's forces have been pushed from key locations around the country, and have lost the presidential palace compound, Gbagbo is now looking at a negotiated exit strategy.

Speaking on France Info radio, Ali Coulibaly did not provide any details about the alleged negotiations. The ambassador represents Alassane Ouattara, who is regarded by the international community as the country's democratically elected president.

Coulibaly's comments come a day after attacks by United Nations and French forces on Gbagbo's presidential palace, military bases and other targets in the country's main city Abidjan.

Ouattara's forces claimed they had taken the residence. However, this was denied by a Gbagbo adviser.

Pro-Ouattara supporters had succeeded in taking much of the country last week, but they faltered upon reaching Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city.

With the help of international forces, the armed group pushed its way into the city.

The loss of life and damage to the economy is considerable. All of this could have been avoided had Gbagbo simply heeded the results of the election. Instead of facing justice, expect Gbagbo to be given the golden ticket to exile.

Death Toll Mounts In Ivory Coast As UN Comes Under Attack From Gbagbo's Loyalists

The death toll continues rising in the Ivory Coast as a result of the political unrest and demands that Laurent Gbagbo leave office.



French peacekeepers took control over a key airport and are bolstering UN peacekeepers elsewhere in the country. Various reports indicate that anywhere from several hundred to more than a thousand people were killed in one town near the heart of the cocoa producing region. There is some dispute over who engaged in the killings, but there were retaliatory attacks between Gbagbo's loyalists and the rebel groups backing the winner of November's election, Alassane Dramane Ouattara.

United Nations helicopters patrolled the skies over the city as a tense calm reigned Sunday morning, a local resident told CNN.

The man, whom CNN is not naming to protect his safety, said he had been to church as usual, where another parishioner said he had seen dead bodies by the road on his way to the congregation.

The uneasy peace came in the wake of claims of a massacre as fighters backing internationally recognized President Alassane Ouattara battle forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to leave office.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded Sunday that Gbagbo step aside immediately.

"Gbagbo is pushing Cote d'Ivoire into lawlessness," she said, using the French name for the country. "He must leave now so the conflict may end."

She also called "on the forces of President Ouattara to respect the rules of war and stop attacks on civilians."

The International Committee of the Red Cross said 800 people were shot to death in the western cocoa-producing town of Duekoue. A United Nations official put the death toll so far at 330.

The massacre occurred between Monday and Wednesday as Ouattara's Republican Forces led an offensive through the country to Abidjan, said Guillaume Ngefa, the deputy human rights director at the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast.

He blamed 220 deaths on forces loyal to Ouattara. Ngefa said pro-Gbagbo forces killed 100 people.

"We have evidence, we have pictures. This was retaliation," he said, referring to Ouattara's forces.

The Ouattara camp said it "firmly rejects such accusations and denies any involvement by the Republican Forces of Cote d'Ivoire in possible abuses."

The UN is withdrawing some of its personnel after their headquarters building has come under repeated attack by Gbagbo's loyalists.

Ivory Coast's Gbagbo's Regime Is At End, Except for the Shooting

The situation in the Ivory Coast remains in flux as rebel groups continue gaining ground against former President Laurent Gbagbo. Fighting continues in the country's commercial capital, and the state television station has gone off the air. The fighting is now focusing on the presidential compound, and Gbagbo's regime may be nearing an end.

U.N. peacekeepers moved to secure the Abidjan airport by sending armed elements and additional personnel there, according to a U.N. peacekeeping official in New York who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Patrick Achi, a spokesman for Ouattara, said the fighters — largely drawn from a northern rebel group that launched a 2002 rebellion against Gbagbo — had breached the city limit overnight.

It was unclear whether Gbagbo was inside the presidential mansion. The defiant leader has not been seen in public since the offensive began five days ago.

"We don't know where he is," a senior diplomat told The Associated Press. He asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the press.

A Swedish woman working for the United Nations was killed by a stray bullet during fighting in Abidjan on Thursday night, the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm confirmed. Some 500 foreigners sought refuge at a French military base, Col. Thierry Burkhard told the AP.

The chairperson of the commission of the African Union, Jean Ping, urged Gbagbo to immediately hand over power to Ouattara "in order to shorten the suffering of the Ivorians," the AU said in a statement from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Gbagbo lost last November's presidential election according to his country's election commission and international observers, but has stubbornly refused to step down. Sanctions imposed on him and his inner circle failed to dislodge him.

The armed offensive is the most severe threat that he has faced, and analysts say they expect Gbagbo's regime to fall within days. "It's over — except for the shooting," said the diplomat.

Gbagbo was defeated in elections this past November by Alassane Dramane Ouattara, but Gbagbo refused to step down, setting up the current conflict.