Ambassador's home in Ivory Coast
Photo: Elad Ratzon
Four Israeli diplomats in the Ivory Coast were successfully evacuated from the country Friday, Ynet has learned. UN soldiers transferred the diplomats to neighboring Ghana.
Plea
FM Lieberman asks French to help evacuate diplomats from embassy after it was hit by stray bullets
Meanwhile artillery hit the residence of France's ambassador to Ivory Coast on Friday for the second time in two days, the French embassy said, a possible show of defiance from the country's strongman who has resisted international pressure to emerge from a bunker and cede power.
The embassy said in a statement that the residence was hit by two mortars and a rocket fired from positions held by forces supporting Gbagbo, who is holed up in a bunker at his residence next door to the French compound. The statement did not say if there were casualties.
The statement also noted that a UN Security Council resolution would permit them to destroy the weapons used to target the French compound.
Gbagbo has for days resisted military and diplomatic pressure to emerge and step down. Forces first attempted to bomb him out. When that failed, they tried a ground assault on the bunker. On Friday, internationally recognized president Alassane Ouattara imposed a blockade Friday around Gbagbo's presidential residence, and said he'll focus on normalizing life in the corpse-strewn, terrorized city.
As the military standoff dragged on in Abidjan, there were new concerns Friday about tensions erupting into deadly violence in the country's west. The UN said more than 100 bodies have been found in the last 24 hours, and some of the victims had been burned alive.
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