Laurent Gbagbo.... President of Ivory Coast since 2000. Gbagbo lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and Laurent has refused to leave despite the international community's hemming, hawing, and broad hints...
Amadou Coulibaly said Sunday that the police have actively participated in the lootings, which began Thursday. Ami Toungara, who advises Alassane Ouattara on women's issues, said her house was looted and burned by a group of youth and police.
Ouattara and his government have been confined to a hotel since early December by security forces loyal to incumbent leader Gbagbo, who has refused cede power and accept results showing he lost the presidential election.
Heavy fighting
... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting...
erupted in western Ivory Coast between rebels and forces loyal to Gbagbo, sources along the Liberian border told Rooters on Sunday.
Gunfire could be heard by residents in Liberian border villages and maimed fighters were crossing over seeking medical attention, the sources said.
"We in Tapeta, here, did not sleep last night from the sounds of the guns (in Ivory Coast)," a Red Thingy official said, asking not to be named. "It sounded like the war was moving into this area."
The fighting started on Saturday in a town in western Ivory Coast reputed to be a pro-Gbagbo stronghold, sources said.
"It is true that many young people from the border towns were recruited by both forces in Ivory Coast," a resident in the Liberian town of Dialah said.
"We were told that Gbagbo's men were dislodged yesterday, but today, there is still resistance."
Ivory Coast has been in turmoil since a disputed November election that threatens to rekindle the West African state's 2002-03 civil war, and has already hindered exports from the world's top cocoa grower. Gbagbo claims he won the poll despite UN-certified results showing his rival Ouattara with an 8-point margin of victory, triggering a standoff that has already killed hundreds.
Tens of thousands of people have decamped Ivory Coast to Liberia already, and analysts are worried Ivory Coast's instability could spill over into its fragile neighbors.