Ivory Coast embarks on security purge

IVORY COAST: Ivory Coast's messy removal of over-staying leader Laurent Gbagbo has left the new government with the daunting task of wiping out remaining pockets of resistance.

New President Alassane Ouattara, who took office nearly five months after winning elections after his troops captured Gbagbo on April 11, has already demolished a popular market in Abidjan that teemed with the fallen regime's followers. The city's university, said to have been another hotbed of pro-Gbagbo elements, has been closed indefinitely.

The presence in Abidjan of coup-plotter Ibrahim Coulibaly with a pack of fighters is a clear security concern for Ouattara. Ouattara on Friday ordered his senior military commanders to ask Coulibaly and other militia leaders to put down their weapons or be disarmed forcefully.

Abidjan, Sunday, AFP