Will the lies from the agenda-pushing paper never end?
"Ivoreans flee as political violence tilts toward war" by Associated Press / March 2, 2011
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — The conflict has reached a new level of intensity as commandos allied with Alassane Ouattara infiltrated Abobo.
Commandos from where?
They struck back, killing police and transforming the nature of the conflict from one pitting the police against unarmed demonstrators to one between two armed forces....
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"Forces loyal to defiant Ivory Coast leader kill six unarmed female protesters" by Associated Press / March 4, 2011
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Soldiers backing Ivory Coast’s defiant leader shot and killed six women yesterday as they protested his refusal to leave power. The attack shocked a nation where women’s marches have long been used as a last resort against an unrestrained army.
Women had decided this week to organize women-only marches in the nation’s commercial capital, assuming soldiers would be too ashamed to open fire.
But at least six of the thousands of women who were demonstrating yesterday were killed on the spot, said Mohamed Dosso, an assistant to the mayor of Abobo who said he saw the bodies.
The three-month-old conflict in Ivory Coast has entered a new level of intensity. With each passing day, the regime of Laurent Gbagbo is proving it is willing to go to any length to stay in office after an election that international observers say he lost....
The attack prompted an immediate rebuke from the United States....
Nearly 400 people have been killed in the country, including 32 in the last 24 hours, according to UN figures and combined with deaths confirmed by the Associated Press.
Last week, Gbagbo’s forces entered the Abobo neighborhood and began shelling it with mortars, an escalation indicating the army is willing to use war-grade weapons on its citizens.
Honestly, it may all be true; however, I'm tired of commenting on agenda-pushing ax-grinding by the USraeli empire's mouthpiece AmeriKan media.
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Anyone mention that there is OIL off the IVORY COAST?
"Rebel violence, looting continue to spread in Ivory Coast" by Adam Nossiter, New York Times / March 7, 2011
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Rebels opposed to the strongman Laurent Gbagbo seized a town near the Liberian border yesterday, a rebel spokesman said, in a further sign of Ivory Coast’s possible slide toward civil war....
A weeklong campaign of looting and burning in Abidjan aimed at the homes of ministers allied with Gbagbo’s rival, Alassane Ouattara, continued yesterday, underscoring the growing lawlessness in this sprawling economic capital.
Ouattara won a presidential election in November, according to most of the international community, but Gbagbo refused to step aside. The standoff prevailing here since then has taken an increasingly violent turn.
Ouattara, who has been trapped in an Abidjan hotel surrounded by UN peacekeepers, has appointed a parallel government, but it has little real power....
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"The government of the democratically elected president of Ivory Coast confirmed yesterday that rebels allied with their leader had seized control of a nearly 30-mile corridor along the country’s border with Liberia after an intense weekend battle.
The seizure of Toulepleu on Sunday extends the gains made by the rebel army, which earlier had seized another town, Zouan-Hounien.
Where did they get this army?
Both towns were controlled by Laurent Gbagbo, who is refusing to cede power even though the country’s election commission declared opposition leader Alassane Ouattara the winner of the Nov. 28 vote.
Gbagbo announced on state TV that the government will now be the only entity authorized to buy or sell coffee and cocoa, the country’s two main exports. The move to nationalize the cocoa and coffee sectors comes as financial sanctions begin to take effect against the rogue leader.
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"4 killed in Ivory Coast after women march" by Associated Press / March 9, 2011
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — In an act of bold defiance, thousands of women converged yesterday on the bloodstained pavement where seven of their sisters fell last week, even as the army backing the country’s rogue leader killed four more civilians.
The brutal slayings last week occurred when soldiers in armored personnel carriers opened fire on a crowd of female demonstrators who were armed with nothing more than tree branches, symbolizing peace.
The attack has further galvanized the international community against Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to yield power three months after being declared the loser of his country’s election.
Of course, when Israel does that to Palestinians excuses are made.
The women had tried to march every day since the attack Thursday, only to lose their nerve in the face of an army that has shown no restraint, breaking the longstanding code that has always protected women. They refused to be cowed yesterday, however, because it was International Women’s Day.
Hours after several hundred women marched in Treichville, a downtown neighborhood, the army burst into a clinic and killed at least four civilians. Reporters saw the bodies of three men and one woman on the blood-splattered floor.
Thousands of other women demonstrating near the site of last week’s killings in the Abobo district were protected by men who had formed a wall across the mouth of a freeway by lining cars end to end....
A wall we actually like.
The seven women are just a fraction of the more than 400 people killed in the three months since this country’s disputed election. Because they were unarmed women, their deaths have prompted international condemnation....
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Time for Gbagboto go:
"Ivory Coast leader bans UN flights" by Associated Press / March 11, 2011
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Ivory Coast’s entrenched incumbent president imposed a no-fly order on UN aircraft, possibly complicating the return of the internationally recognized election winner who was attending an African Union summit yesterday in Ethiopia.
The United Nations said it would ignore the order and continue its flights in Ivory Coast....
“Laurent Gbagbo is no longer the president of Ivory Coast — his decisions mean nothing,’’ said Patrick Achi, the spokesman for Ouattara’s government. “He told the ambassadors to leave, they’re still here. He told the United Nations to quit, their ranks were reinforced. He said the helicopters could no longer fly, the helicopters are flying all over Abidjan.’’
Two Associated Press journalists boarded a UN helicopter hours after the announcement of a no-fly zone was made on state television late Wednesday.
In New York, Martin Nesirky, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said the United Nations mission in Ivory Coast will continue its flights in the country....
Ivory Coast’s air force was destroyed by the French military during the country’s brief civil war, which erupted in 2002.
Practice for Libya?
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"Ivory Coast battle moves into loyalist area" Associated Press / March 15, 2011
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — After weeks of battling to take control of areas where they are popular, fighters loyal to Ivory Coast’s internationally recognized president pressed forward into hostile territory yesterday, attacking a district loyal to the incumbent leader who refuses to cede power....
Fighters from where?
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No answers there.
"UN condemns attack in Ivory Coast" by Associated Press / March 19, 2011
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — The United Nations yesterday blamed forces loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo for a mortar attack a day earlier that left at least 25 people dead.
How many people are those commandos killing?
UN officials said they were investigating the attack, which they said could be a crime against humanity.
You know what? The U.N is RACIST!!
Gbagbo’s refusal to cede power after apparently losing his reelection has sparked the crisis.
The UN said in a statement that at least six mortar shells were fired from a nearby military base. About 40 people were wounded. Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s biggest city, has for weeks seen daily battles that have left hundreds dead.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Security Council to “take further measures with regard to the Ivorian individuals who are instigating, orchestrating, and committing the violence,’’ said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky.
Gbagbo denied his forces were involved. He instead suggested that the UN was conspiring against him.
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"Gbagbo foes claim 5th Ivory Coast town" by Associated Press / March 22, 2011
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Military officials loyal to Ivory Coast’s internationally recognized president said yesterday that they have seized a fifth town in the country’s far west, amid a deepening political crisis.
Yesterday’s announcement came as thousands of youths gathered in the country’s commercial capital to volunteer for the army to defend the incumbent leader who refuses to step down....
In Abidjan yesterday, an Associated Press cameraman estimated that thousands gathered in front of the defense ministry in response to a call to enlist from Charles Blé Goudé, the leader of the Young Patriots organization.
Forces loyal to Gbagbo fired mortars on a crowded marketplace last week, killing at least 25 people — an act resoundingly denounced by Western governments.
The United Nations also condemned the attack and said crimes against humanity may have been committed.
An African Union mediation panel has given Gbagbo until Thursday to sit down with Ouattara to negotiate a transfer of power.
Is that U.N. tool where the commandos came from?
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"Foes of ousted Ivorian leader claim victory in key city" by Associated Press / March 29, 2011
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Forces loyal to Ivory Coast’s internationally recognized president yesterday said they seized a major city, an event that could mark the beginning of military operations in the West African country that has teetered for months on the brink of civil war.
The beginning?
The area along the Liberian border has seen limited fighting for the last several weeks, but the latest push could open the way for troops loyal to Alassane Ouattara to march south to the strategic port of San Pedro or east to the political capital of Yamoussoukro....
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"Pro-Ouattara forces advance in Ivory Coast" by Associated Press / April 1, 2011
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Fighters trying to install Ivory Coast’s democratically elected president months after the disputed vote descended on the country’s largest city yesterday, aiming to unseat the nation’s entrenched ruler as gunfire broke out across Abidjan.
The regular army has put up almost no resistance during an offensive that began Monday, allowing the forces backing internationally recognized leader Alassane Ouattara to take 80 percent of the country in a matter of days. Soldiers abandoned their posts, shedding their uniforms and running....
“The end is almost here. It’s a matter of hours,’’ said Patrick Achi, spokesman for Ouattara.
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"Ivory Coast fighters tighten circle around defiant Gbagbo; Standoff may be near end amid battles at palace" by Rukmini Callimachi and Marco Chown Oved, Associated Press / April 2, 2011
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Laurent Gbagbo’s 10-year grip on the Ivory Coast seemed to be in its final hours yesterday after fighters encircled both his residence and the presidential palace and battled to unseat the man who has refused to recognize his defeat in last year’s election.
Even in the face of a rapid military advance that has swept across Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, and arrived at his doorstep, Gbagbo rejected calls to step down.
His aides defiantly said they will never give in, even though nearly 80 percent of the country and now large swaths of its largest city are controlled by an armed group fighting to install the internationally recognized winner of the election, Alassane Ouattara....
In the Cocody neighborhood where the presidential mansion is located, families slept in bathrooms and on the floor as successive blasts punctuated the all-night assault.
People living near the presidential palace a few miles to the west were awakened by a barrage of explosions, some so strong they made the walls of buildings tremble.
During the day, machine-gun fire could be heard at either end of the waterside highway leading to the palace. It is strategically located on a peninsula surrounded on all sides by a lagoon, and military vehicles mounted with rocket launchers sped by while Mi-24 helicopters circled.
Gbagbo had delayed the November election for five years, canceling it every year only to promise, but fail, to hold it the next.
Ouattara’s victory with 54 percent of the vote was recognized first by the country’s electoral commission and then by the United Nations, which pored over thousands of tally sheets before certifying the results. He has been recognized by governments around the world, and leaders from US President Obama to French President Nicolas Sarkozy have made personal appeals to Gbagbo to step down.
“This turn of events is a direct consequence of the intransigence of the outgoing president, Mr. Laurent Gbagbo, who has repeatedly refused to heed calls for him to cede the reins of power in the country to the president-elect, Mr. Alassane Ouattara,’’ said a statement yesterday by the regional Economic Community of West African States.
Gbagbo, 65, has not been seen in public since the offensive began five days ago, but those in his inner circle say he is still in Abidjan and will fight until the end. It’s unclear where he is holed up, with Ouattara’s camp speculating he is in a bunker in the palace....
It will take more than a few hours to get him out of there, no?
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