As rival presidents battle, 800 massacred in ICoast town

[1]

A tense stand-off between Ivory Coast's two presidents led to heavy fighting in Abidjan, as the International Red Cross announced that at least 800 people had been massacred in the west earlier in the week.

Under immense foreign pressure and besieged by internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara's forces in the economic capital, Gbagbo held on as his forces repulsed an attack on his home and presidency on Friday.

The United States, France, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon and the African Union urged Gbagbo to step down immediately, citing concerns over citizens caught up in the country's bloody post-election conflict.

Troops loyal to Ouattara, who has been unable to take office since a November election, captured towns throughout the country in an offensive launched on Monday, with a massive death toll reported in Duekoue in the west.

"At least 800 people were killed in Duekoue on Tuesday," an ICRC spokeswoman in Geneva, Dorothea Krimitsas, told the media, adding that information on the death toll had been gathered by Red Cross representatives who visited the area on Thursday and Friday.

"There is no doubt that something on a large scale took place in this city, on which the ICRC is continuing to gather information," she said, adding that Red Cross representatives had "themselves seen a very large number of bodies".

As Ouattara's troops arrived in Abidjan, fierce battles rocked the city on Thursday night and most of Friday, though shooting and explosions around the presidential palace and Gbagbo's private residence were abating by late afternoon, with only sporadic gunfire heard.

Armoured UN vehicles patrolled the business district during the afternoon and a UN helicopter circled the area, media journalists saw.

Gbagbo's camp played down rumours he was preparing to flee, insisting they had beaten back an Ouattara offensive.

"The offensive on the presidential palace was pushed back, the offensive on the radio station was pushed back," spokesman Ahoua Don Mello said, adding that an offensive against RTI state television had also failed.

"Finally, an attempt to seize the residence was a total failure," Don Mello said, referring to Gbagbo's home in the northern suburb of Cocody.

"He is at home, obviously, with his wife and the whole family. He is better accepted in Ivory Coast than elsewhere." Ouattara's camp said it was convinced Gbago's fate had already been sealed.

"I don't think Laurent Gbagbo is capable of resisting for much longer with all the defections in his ranks he is condemned to be removed," Ouattara's spokeswoman Anna Ouloto told the media.