Ivory Coast crisis:

Ouattara orders siege

IVORY COAST: Ivorian President-elect Alassane Ouattara has ordered a siege on rival Gbagbo’s residence as fighting continues between his forces and those loyal to Gbagbo.

Incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo is believed to be hiding in an underground bunker at the Presidential place in Ivory Coast’s main city Abijdan, AFP reported.

Gbagbo has reportedly less than a thousand men in Abidjan, including around 200 in his residence. French authorities have said that UN troops have surrounded the very last of Gbagbo’s defenders within a “limited area.” Pro-Ouattara forces tried to enter his residence Wednesday but pulled back after clashes, as killing Gbagbo could enrage his supporters.

Ouattara assured the victims of the recent violence in the country that criminals will be punished. Ouattara has said that fighting will lighten beginning Friday. He has requested that the European Union (EU) lift its sanctions on the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro on the French television channel LCI, Reuters reported. He also announced measures to improve security, return basic necessities and utilities, and resume economic activities and the payments of workers’ salaries.

Meanwhile, The UN Ambassador of the Ivory Coast Youssoufou Bamba has said that Gbagbo will be taken alive and put on trial when he is captured. Bamba has also stressed that the country’s cocoa sector will soon return to normal, after Ouattara placed a ban on exports in mid-January in an attempt to cut off economic support to Gbagbo. Presstv