IVORY COAST: Men loyal to presidential incumbent Laurent Gbagbo taken as prisoners by pro-Ouattara Republican Forces

Record ID: 182106

  • Title: IVORY COAST: Men loyal to presidential incumbent Laurent Gbagbo taken as prisoners by pro-Ouattara Republican Forces
  • Date: 10th April 2011
  • Summary: GESCO PETROL STATION, NORTHERN CORRIDOR, ABIDJAN (APRIL 9, 2011) (REUTERS) PRISONERS (YOUNG PATRIOTS, PRO-GBAGBO MILITIA MEN) QUEUING, GETTING UNDRESSED PRO-OUATTARA SOLDIERS FROM THE REPUBLICAN FORCES OF IVORY COAST (FRCI) WATCHING PRISONERS GETTING OUT OF TRUCK PRISONERS ENTERING PETROL STATION GARAGE ON THEIR KNEES PRISONERS HANDING OUT THEIR MOBILE PHONES , ID PAPERS TO SOLDIERS BEFORE ENTERING GARAGE VARIOUS OF PRISONERS AND FRCI SOLDIERS IN GARAGE FRCI SOLDIERS SHARING BELONGINGS LEFT BY PRISONERS MORE OF PRISONERS IN GARAGE, FRCI SOLDIERS PRISONERS GETTING UNDRESSED BUS COMING FROM ABIDJAN WITH PEOPLE FLEEING ADJAME NEIGHBOURHOOD GOING TO YAMOUSSOUKRO VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN BUS (SOUNDBITE) (French) ADJAME RESIDENT, MIRIAM COULIBALY, SAYING: "There (in Adjame) we don't have any security. Twice now, they (pro-Gbagbo troops) shot their rockets at us. They (rockets) fell into our courtyard and killed three people. The next day the same thing, so we had to leave our house."
  • Embargoed: 25th April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cote d'Ivoire
  • Country: Ivory Coast
  • Topics: War / Fighting,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5WKCH5JLAT2LP9G3S5S4RT62T
  • Story Text: Hundreds of men loyal to incumbent Laurent Gbagbo have been captured as prisoners by the pro-Ouattara Republican Forces of Ivory Coast (FRCI) and they were held at a petrol station on the outskirts of Abidjan on Saturday (April 9).
    Pro-Gbagbo militia and men from Gbagbo's fanatical "young patriots" were asked to give out their ID and personal belongings at the petrol station playing the role of FRCI military base on the Northern Corridor road leading north from Abidjan.
    By foot or ramshackle buses, Abidjan residents headed out of Abidjan seeking safety, medicine or simply something to eat.
    The trickle of Abidjanais through the city's northern corridor is a sign many doubt conditions will improve soon as a violent battle for power between Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara drags on.
    In the northern district of Gesco, kiosks selling mobile phone credits, shops and restaurants, were all shut.
    A nightclub promising dancing "night and day" was locked with padlocks, its windows boarded up.
    The only sign of life on streets is people searching for food or water, alone or in small groups.
    Pro-Ouattara soldiers who hold the area said they were still battling pockets of resistance.
    A bus comes past with around 50 residents from across the city bound for the official capital Yamoussoukro several hours drive north.
    Miriam Coulibaly, a woman from the Adjame district of Abidjan, who has for months seen unrest, is now giving up on her home there.
    "There (in Adjame) we don't have any security. Twice now, they (pro-Gbagbo troops) shot their rockets at us. They (rockets) fell into our courtyard and killed three people. The next day the same thing, so we had to leave our house," Coulibaly said.
    Another woman shouted in the distance that ''It smells really bad in Adjame, there are too many bodies there."
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register