Gbagbo exit ‘bad for Ivory Coast’

UN peacekeepers have been attacked by Gbagbo loyalists

Ivory Coast’s incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo has offered to recount the vote of last month’s disputed poll.

He claims to have won the election outright, even though international observers say his rival, Alassane Ouattara, was the victor.

The UN says some 200 people have been killed or disappeared – mostly Ouattara supporters.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has told Mr Gbagbo he could be held accountable for human rights abuses.

Some of Ivory Coast’s neighbours have threatened military action to oust Mr Gbagbo but analysts say intervention in Ivory Coast would be far more difficult than West Africa’s previous operations in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The UK has said it would back military intervention, if sanctioned by the UN.

Mr Ouattara is holed up in a hotel in the main city, Abidjan, protected by UN peacekeepers.

Some of Mr Gbagbo’s allies have threatened to storm the hotel on Saturday – a threat which UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said could spark renewed civil war.

The election was intended to reunify the country which has been divided since a 2002 conflict.

Mr Ouattara was initially proclaimed the winner by Ivory Coast’s election commission.

But as it was doing this, the Constitutional Council cancelled the vote in parts of the north still controlled by New Forces rebels who back Mr Ouattara, and said Mr Gbagbo had won with 51% of the vote.

Both men have been sworn in as president.

Mr Gbagbo did not give any details of his recount proposals.

“We are negotiating. I ask myself why those who claim to have beaten me oppose a recount of the votes,” he said.

The UN helped organise the poll and says Mr Ouattara won.

As international pressure increases on Mr Gbagbo to step down, the EU has agreed to widen a travel ban to 59 Gbagbo allies, diplomats say.

Mr Gbagbo accuses France, which retains considerable economic interests in its former colony, of mobilising international opinion against him.

“Amongst today’s great global powers, each has its own sphere of influence. When it’s something to do with Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, France speaks and the rest follow,” Mr Gbagbo told Euronews.

He has ordered the 9,500 UN peacekeepers to leave Ivory Coast and there have been some attacks on them by Mr Gbagbo’s supporters.

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