Abidjan — Security forces and rival opposition supporters attacked the home of Alassane Ouattara, the opposition politician in Cote d'Ivoire, on Wednesday morning. Ouattara, who was excluded from Sunday's presidential election on grounds of nationality, has called for a re-run of the poll, saying the process was flawed. He has also challenged the legitimacy of the vote which the veteran socialist leader Laurent Gbagbo claims to have won.
A spokesman for Ouattara said he managed to escape from the house, which is reported to have come under heavy fire later in the morning. The spokesman said paramilitary police had tried to force their way into the palatial residence overlooking the Ebrie Lagoon and fired teargas to disperse his supporters and armed bodyguards. Ouattara took refuge in the German ambassador's residence next door.
Rival political protestors of Ouattara and Gbagbo clashed with sticks and stones in different parts of Abidjan. The Gbagbo youths roaming the streets, and wearing crowns of leaves and black paint, seemed to benefit from the help of paramilitary police. They hunted down people they took for Ouattara loyalists who were stripped naked, whipped and kicked.
Many streets in the wealthy residential suburbs were almost deserted, with an eerie silence in normally bustling neighborhoods. The few cars on the roads were stopped by youths, some jittery and aggressive and armed with sticks, stones and bricks, who checked the occupants before waving them on.
But the working class areas of Abobo, Yopougon, Adjame and Blokosso were tense.
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Churches and mosques seemed to be a target , reflecting an increasingly divisive split in Ivory Coast, between the predominantly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south, center and west . Political lines seem to be drawn largely according to region, tribe and religion with Ouattara, a Muslim, popular in the north and Gbagbo drawing most of his support from his native west and the south.
These latest developments came less than twenty four hours after General Robert Guei, the former military leader of Ivory Coast, was swept out of office on a wave of public fury, which brought thousands onto the streets of Abidjan. They defied soldiers and bullets and marched towards the presidential palace vowing to topple Guei and drive him out of office.
On Tuesday, Guei unilaterally claimed outright victory in the election and dismissed the National Electoral Commission. Guei was initially reported to have fled the country, but conflicting information said he was still in Ivory Coast after the popular uprising.
On Wednesday evening, Laurent Gbagbo reinstated the electoral commission which he said would declare the true results leading to his presumed victory and, he hopes, swift recognition at home and abroad. He thanked the Ivorian people by backing him on the streets and held immediate consultations with senior military, paramilitary and civilian leaders at his home.
For the third day running shops and offices all over Abidjan were closed. The streets were littered with debris in the commercial and administrative center where the worst of the fighting between troops and civilians happened on Tuesday and Wednesday. Little looting was reported.
