Thousands flee post-poll violence in Abidjan

Thousands of residents of Ivory Coast's economic capital streamed into bus stations Saturday to flee deadly violence in Abidjan as the country's post-election crisis deepened. The exodus caps a bloody week in which strongman Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to hand over power to the internationally recognised winner of November's presidential election, was condemned at home and abroad for an alleged massacre of civilians.
As mounting violence threatens to plunge the world's top cocoa producer into civil war, the UN estimates nearly 500,000 people are displaced, at least 200,000 from Abidjan. Some 90,000 have fled to neighbouring Liberia in a humanitarian crisis which threatens to rock the sub-region. Families laden with bags crowded into Yopougon bus station in the west and Adjame bus station in the north of Abidjan, saying they were fleeing to their native villages.
Adjame and Yopougon were this week hit by violent clashes between Gbagbo's forces and rebels supporting his rival Alassane Ouattara, internationally recognised as Ivorian president. "I am afraid," said Marguerite, a mother surrounded by her four children. "I am leaving Abidjan to take refuge in the village."
Another resident identifying himself as Tanoh said they had been ordered to leave, without saying by whom. "The order is clear, we must leave Abidjan, we have been asked to leave," he said. "I have seen dead bodies in my suburb, I can't handle it."
Later Saturday one of Gbagbo's key backers, his fiery youth minister and leader of the "Young Patriots" Charles Ble Goude - dubbed the "General of the Streets" - is expected to inflame passions further with a rallying speech. State television showed him meeting with young backers as he whipped up support on Friday, saying: "There were survivors of the First World War, there were survivors of the Rwandan genocide, there were survivors of the tsunami. There will be survivors of the war in the Ivory Coast."
The epicentre of the violence in Abidjan has been Ouattara stronghold Abobo where Gbagbo's camp is accused by the UN of launching mortars which killed up to 30 people on Thursday. The outgoing president denounces this as a "conspiracy"
Gbagbo has called on assistance form his supporters, urging "greater responsibility and greater collaboration" between citizens and his Defence and Security Forces to "neutralise" any suspicious elements. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday condemned the growing violence in a statement, singling out Gbagbo by name.
"The United States condemns Laurent Gbagbo's continued attacks on unarmed civilians in Cote d'Ivoire and we demand an immediate end to this brutality," she said. The United Nations spoke of crimes against humanity while France condemned "the deliberate massacre of civilians" after the attack.
The UN estimates some 440 people have died since the beginning of the crisis. Fresh heavy weapons fire rang out in Abobo on Friday night, according to residents. The economic capital has been stuck in violent limbo as mediation efforts appeared to have stalled at an African Union meeting last week.