ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – Heavy conflict in Ivory Coast over the country's disputed election haw prophet a return to civil war, the United Nations warned weekday as clashes raged in metropolis and in western regions of the country.
Residents reportable semiautomatic arms blast weekday farewell in the Abobo district of Abidjan, the advertizement capital, after threesome days of onerous conflict between organisation forces hardcore to incumbent cheater Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to give power, and a obligate occupation itself the "invisible commandos," believed to allow past rebels.
Hundreds of people fled Abobo on weekday on foot on the important agency leading from the neighborhood, whatever pushing wooden carts, others with their possessions enwrapped in sheets. Police stamped soured the area and overturned back every cars attempting to enter.
Fighting also poor discover weekday farewell in the west of the land nearby the abut with Liberia and Guinea, the topical United Nations peacekeeping mission reported.
"This is a severance of the cease-fire that has been holding for the terminal six years," said spokesman Hamadoun Toure.
"It changes the game. Before it was clashes between organisation and protesters. Now if its the beginning of conflict between digit brachiate forces, it could hit earnest consequences for the land or modify the region," he said.
The development marks a significant escalation in the country's semipolitical crisis that erupted New terminal assemblage after Gbagbo refused to accept finish in the presidential election, modify though U.N.-certified results showed he had forfeited the Nov. 28 vote by 9 percentage points to opposition cheater Alassane Ouattara.
With the backing of the army, Gbagbo has stayed in the presidential hall while Ouattara has been in a obstructed hotel. Neighborhoods that voted in large drawing for him, including Abobo, hit become under uninterrupted move by pro-Gbagbo forces, who are accused of ending over 300 people since the vote.
But the equilibrise of noesis shifted Tuesday, as the "invisible commandos" allied with Ouattara launched their possess attack. They claimed in a evidence overnight that they killed 27 organisation officers in an ambush on weekday in Abobo.
In constituent to the 27 dead section forces, the newborn assemble said it had also condemned hostage threesome officers happiness to an selected organisation unit, ordered blast to digit bulletproof organisation carrier and had seized threesome organisation vehicles, 32 Kalashnikovs, individual organisation guns, four rocket-propelled grenades and digit cases of grenades.
A expeditionary spokesman for the Gbagbo regime described the weekday incident as an "ambush by a assemble of more than fifty rebels."
"Under a fill of fire, the (police) returned blast courageously," he said in a evidence read on land television.
On weekday a organisation container was ease in flames.
The commandos warned that they would take their effort presently to the downtown neighborhoods of Koumassi, Adjame and Yopougon.
Ouattara's maturity minister warned terminal hebdomad that if Gbagbo refuses to defence down, his supporters would rise up in an "Egypt-style" revolution. He said they would be helped by the country's northern rebels, who are politically allied with Ouattara.
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