UN News Center
11 April 2011 – The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Cote d’Ivoire today confirmed that the country’s former president Laurent Gbagbo has surrendered to forces loyal to President-elect Alassane Ouattara and is currently in their custody.
“ONUCI [UN Operation in Cote d’Ivoire] is providing protection and security in accordance with its Security Council mandate,” the spokesperson of the Secretary-General told reporters at UN Headquarters.
Côte d’Ivoire has been engulfed by violence since last November, when Mr. Gbagbo refused to step down from power, despite losing a UN-certified and internationally recognized presidential election to Mr. Ouattara.
The Security Council, meanwhile, went into urgent consultations during which it will hear a briefing on the unfolding situation in Côte d’Ivoire from the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy.
From The BBC
Besieged Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo has been detained in the main city Abidjan and delivered to the headquarters of his elected successor.
He reportedly surrendered to Alassane Ouattara’s forces after French tanks advanced on his residence.
Mr Gbagbo had been refusing to cede power to Mr Ouattara after losing November’s presidential election.
France said pro-Ouattara troops had detained him, but an aide to Mr Gbagbo said it was French special forces.
Mr Gbagbo was then taken to the city’s Golf Hotel, where Mr Ouattara has his headquarters.
UN peacekeepers accused pro-Gbagbo forces of endangering the civilian population and had asked French troops in Ivory Coast to act against the defiant leader’s heavy weapons.
Ivory Coast’s permanent representative to the UN, Youssoufou Bamba, said Mr Gbagbo would stand trial.
In London, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said that if charges were brought, Mr Gbagbo should be tried in an orderly manner.
‘Gbagbo has surrendered’
Forces loyal to Mr Ouattara launched an offensive from their stronghold in the north at the end of March, after months of political deadlock during which Mr Gbagbo refused to recognise his rival’s election victory (continue at BBC)
From the Wall Street Journal
Forces loyal to Ivory Coast’s elected president Alassane Ouattara have seized strongman Laurent Gbagbo from his residence, bringing to a head a protracted conflict between two presidential rivals that had tilted the world’s largest cocoa producer toward civil war.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Ouattara said Monday that Mr. Gbagbo was captured during a flurry of fighting earlier in the day. “There [was] heavy fighting involving French soldiers, the United Nations and our forces against Mr. Gbagbo’s forces,” spokeswoman Sogona Bamba-Arnault said from Paris. “Once all heavy weapons were destroyed, Mr. Gbagbo was there and we arrested him.”
An aide to Mr. Gbagbo said the incumbent ruler was first arrested by French special forces, and only later handed to forces loyal to Mr. Ouattara.
In Paris, French officials had no immediate comment.
Ms. Bamba-Arnault, the president-elect’s spokeswoman, said Mr. Gbagbo was taken to the Golf Hotel, where Mr. Ouattara has set up his office.
Mr. Gbagbo lost a November presidential runoff certified by the U.N. but refused to recognize the result, citing voting irregularities.
When attempts by African leaders to mediate the conflict failed, Mr. Ouattara’s rebel forces launched an offensive, sweeping south and capturing key towns and ports that Mr. Gbagbo’s army once held.
That advance stalled outside the main Ivory Coast city of Abidjan, a stronghold for Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters. It was only when the U.N. and Licorne, or Unicorn—the French battalion stationed in Abidjan—launched a series of aerial attacks that the rebels were able to encircle the former Ivory Coast president in his residence.
The U.N. and the French said the air assaults were intended to protect civilians by destroying Mr. Gbagbo’s artillery and weapons stockpiles. Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters said the military intervention was the work of a former colonial power pushing a political rival into the presidency.
Mr. Gbagbo resisted surrender, and a core of a couple of hundred supporters rebuffed initial efforts to capture his residence. Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters continued to attack French and U.N. targets, prompting a retaliation that appeared to pave the way for the former president’s capture on Monday.
Recent controversies associated with his rebel forces have complicated Mr. Ouattara’s struggle to oust the Ivory Coast strongman from his residence, and also point to the challenges of reconciliation after the conflict. The Ivory Coast fought a two-year civil war after Mr. Gbagbo came to power, and although the conflict officially ended in 2002, the country has remained sharply divided.
In a report released by New York-based Human Rights Watch over the weekend, Mr. Ouattara’s forces were said to have “killed hundreds of civilians, raped more than 20 alleged supporters of his rival, Laurent Gbagbo, and burned at least 10 villages” in the country’s western region during their advance south. The report said Mr. Gbagbo’s backers also killed supporters of the president-elect, but it called on Mr. Ouattara to investigate abuses on both sides.
That report followed a separate account from the International Committee of the Red Cross, estimating that 800 people were killed in intercommunal violence in the town of Duekoue, after troops loyal to Mr. Ouattara moved through the area.
The International Criminal Court also has said it was considering opening an investigation into reports of atrocities during the conflict.
Mr. Ouattara has pledged to launch an investigation into the allegations, and vowed that the perpetrators would be brought to justice in domestic or international courts.
