Heavy fighting as Ivory Coast rebels attack presidential palace

HEAVY fighting is raging near the presidential palace in the Ivory Coast’s largest city Abidjan as armed forces loyal to the elected president try to install him in power and oust the country’s strongman.

Residents locked up in their homes reported barrages of heavy arms fire punctuated by detonations throughout the night.

On the peninsula where the presidential palace is situated, buildings were shaking with each explosion, witnesses said.

Patrick Achi, a spokesman for the country’s internationally recognised leader Alassane Ouattara said the fighters had breached the city limit overnight and were waging battles at the palace and the presidential residence.

Achi said the forces, who are former rebels who fought in a civil war a decade ago that left Ivory Coast divided, had seized Radio Television Ivoirienne, or RTI, the government-owned broadcaster.

About 10pm on Thursday the state TV signal was cut. Achi said that they were having technical difficulties transmitting their own images, but a senior diplomat said that fighting continued outside the station, and that it was unclear if Ouattara’s forces fully control it.

Gunfire was also continuing around the presidential mansion, where former President Laurent Gbagbo may be holed up, although the defiant leader has not been seen in public since the offensive began five days ago.

“We don’t know where he is,” said the diplomat.

The chairperson of the commission of the African Union, Jean Ping, urged Gbagbo to immediately hand over power to Ouattara “in order to shorten the suffering of the Ivorians,” the AU said in a statement from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Gbagbo lost last November’s presidential election according to his country’s election commission and international observers, but has stubbornly refused to step down. Sanctions imposed on him and his inner circle have failed to dislodge him.

The armed offensive is the most severe threat that he has faced, and analysts say they expect Gbagbo’s regime to fall within days. “It’s over – except for the shooting,” said the diplomat.

A Swedish woman working for the United Nations was killed by a stray bullet during fighting in Abidjan on Thursday night, the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm confirmed. Some 500 foreigners sought refuge at a French military base, Col Thierry Burkhard told The Associated Press.

Since the election, up to one million people have fled the fighting and at least 494 people have been killed, most of them Ouattara supporters.

After months of political deadlock, armed forces backing Ouattara launched a rapid offensive this week, overrunning nearly 80 % of the country as soldiers fled and towns fell in quick succession. The regular army put up almost no resistance.