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Ambassador's home in Ivory Coast
Photo: Elad Ratzon

Israelis evacuated from Ivory Coast

Diplomats in state plagued by clashes between elected president, strongman who refuses to relinquish power evacuated by UN to Ghana

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.

 

Some Israelis still remain in the country, and are in safe locations. Four of them were transferred to secure locations by the French army. They apparently preferred to remain in the Ivory Coast, where clashes are taking place between followers of the elected president and those of strongman Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to relinquish power.

 

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.

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.08.11, 23:58
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