As reported earlier, Laurent Gbagbo, the Ivory Coast Leader was captured today….and he was apparently a lil banged up from being slapped: Issard Soumahro, a pro-Ouattara fighter who said he had taken part in the final assault, told the Associated Press that French helicopters had been firing until 0300 (0300 GMT) on Monday. “We attacked and forced in a part of the bunker,” he said. “He [Mr Gbagbo] was there with his wife and his son. He wasn’t hurt but he was tired and his cheek was swollen from where a soldier had slapped him.” Guess that’s what he gets…SMH. Source
They were finally able to capture Gbagbo: After a week of heavy fighting, forces backing Ivory Coast’s internationally recognized leader on Monday arrested strongman Laurent Gbagbo who had refused to leave the presidency despite losing elections more than four months earlier. The dispute over the presidency had pushed the world’s largest cocoa producer to the brink of a renewed civil war, with hundreds of civilians slain in postelection violence. An eyewitness at the Golf Hotel where election winner Alassane Ouattara had been trying to run the presidency said he saw Gbagbo, his wife and son enter the hotel around midday Monday. The witness spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The long-awaited development came after French military forces in this former French colony deployed tanks Monday for the first time near a bunker at the presidential residence where Gbagbo had reportedly been holed up with his family. Speaking on Ouattara’s private television station, Prime Minister Guillaume Soro said Gbagbo gave up when troops loyal to Ouattara entered Gbagbo’s compound. The station broadcast images of a serene Gbagbo sitting on his bed. It was not immediately clear if the images were made immediately after his capture. A senior adviser to Ouattara said it was Ivorian forces who arrested Gbagbo and that French forces were on the perimeter. Cmdr. Frederic Daguillon, the French forces spokesman in Abidjan, said “there wasn’t one single French soldier at the residence of Laurent Gbagbo.” Ouattara’s radio station confirmed Gbagbo’s arrest. Official word first came from the French Embassy in Abidjan. “It’s a victory … considering all the evil that Laurent Gbagbo inflicted on Ivory Coast,” Ouattara’s ambassador to France, Ali Coulibaly, said on France-Info radio. He emphasizing that the man in power for a decade would be “treated with humanity.” Source
They were finally able to capture Gbagbo: After a week of heavy fighting, forces backing Ivory Coast’s internationally recognized leader on Monday arrested strongman Laurent Gbagbo who had refused to leave the presidency despite losing elections more than four months earlier. The dispute over the presidency had pushed the world’s largest cocoa producer to the brink of a renewed civil war, with hundreds of civilians slain in postelection violence. An eyewitness at the Golf Hotel where election winner Alassane Ouattara had been trying to run the presidency said he saw Gbagbo, his wife and son enter the hotel around midday Monday. The witness spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The long-awaited development came after French military forces in this former French colony deployed tanks Monday for the first time near a bunker at the presidential residence where Gbagbo had reportedly been holed up with his family. Speaking on Ouattara’s private television station, Prime Minister Guillaume Soro said Gbagbo gave up when troops loyal to Ouattara entered Gbagbo’s compound. The station broadcast images of a serene Gbagbo sitting on his bed. It was not immediately clear if the images were made immediately after his capture. A senior adviser to Ouattara said it was Ivorian forces who arrested Gbagbo and that French forces were on the perimeter. Cmdr. Frederic Daguillon, the French forces spokesman in Abidjan, said “there wasn’t one single French soldier at the residence of Laurent Gbagbo.” Ouattara’s radio station confirmed Gbagbo’s arrest. Official word first came from the French Embassy in Abidjan. “It’s a victory … considering all the evil that Laurent Gbagbo inflicted on Ivory Coast,” Ouattara’s ambassador to France, Ali Coulibaly, said on France-Info radio. He emphasizing that the man in power for a decade would be “treated with humanity.” Source
