IVORY COAST: Leader Laurent Gbago asks the United Nations and French peacekeeping forces to leave the country

Record ID: 181724

  • Title: IVORY COAST: Leader Laurent Gbago asks the United Nations and French peacekeeping forces to leave the country
  • Date: 20th December 2010
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF YOUNG PATRIOTS SINGING
  • Embargoed: 4th January 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cote d'Ivoire
  • Country: Ivory Coast
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5O00S492B4O7R4WDC80TSLKFW
  • Story Text: The government of Ivory Coast's incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo on Saturday (December 18) told the United Nations and French peacekeeping missions to leave, escalating a dispute over last month's elections.
    Both the United Nations and the former colonial power, France, have urged Gbagbo to concede defeat in a Nov. 28 poll, which was meant to heal the wounds of the West African state's 2002-03 civil war but has instead reopened them.
    The leader of Gbagbo's feared Young Patriots militia group, Ble Goude, told Reuters they may march on the U.N. guarded hotel where Ouattara is staying to force him out.
    "We don't need no gun to ask ONUCI and Licorne to I have said it (they must leave) and I hope they will do it and I'm asking them to stay in their barracks." said Ble Goude at a rally of several thousand in the poor neighbourhood of Yopougon, where he called on his militia to "liberate" Ivory Coast.
    "From next Friday I will need you for the total liberation of Ivory Coast in order to be definitely respected," said Ble Goude, who is also Gbabo's youth minister.
    The country has been in turmoil since Gbagbo claimed victory in the election with backing from the pro-Gbagbo Constitutional Council, the nation's highest legal body, rejecting as fraudulent results showing that he had lost by nearly eight percentage points to Alassane Ouattara.
    The United Nations and almost all world leaders have recognised Ouattara's win and demanded that Gbagbo step down.
    The U.N mission includes some 10,000 soldiers and police, and is supported by the French LICORNE force. Hundreds of peacekeepers have been deployed to defend Ouattara's makeshift headquarters in Abidjan's lagoon-side Golf Hotel.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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