Ouattara, April 08: Ivory Coast’s envoy to the UN says that former embattled President Laurent Gbagbo will be taken alive and brought to trial when he is captured.
“Sooner or later he will be captured and brought to justice,” AFP reported Ambassador Youssoufou Bamba as saying at a press conference.
“People are dying in the meantime, because the electricity has been cut in Abidjan, the running water is cut, and there is an epidemic of cholera going on,” he said, adding that there would be no further chance for negotiations.
Ouattara on Thursday ordered a blockade on Gbagbo’s residence while calling on his forces to show restraint.
Gbagbo has secured himself at his palace in the country’s economic capital Abidjan, as fighting continues between forces loyal to him and internationally recognized President-elect Alassane Ouattara.
Gbagbo told France’s LCI news channel late Tuesday that he had won the November presidential election, and therefore, did not intend to sign the document urged by the United Nations and France recognizing Ouattara’s victory.
The deadly violence erupted in the West African country after the disputed presidential election in November when both Ouattara and Gbagbo campaigned in the face of a fierce competition. َAlthough Ouattara was largely recognized by the international community as the winner, Gbagbo has refused to step down.
Several hundreds of people have been killed in the recent violence while up to a million have been displaced as both sides refuse to cede power, according to UN reports.
Gbagbo, who was elected in 2000, postponed polls in 2005 several times, and finally allowed them to go ahead last year, only to reject the result issued by the election authority and backed by the UN.
——–Agencies