Forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, besieged in Ivory Coast's main city, have retaken ground and are edging closer to where rival presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara is holed up, the United Nations said. UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy told reporters on Friday that Gbagbo's forces had used a lull in fighting for peace talks as a ruse to reinforce their positions.
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"We understand that since that time, the forces of Mr Gbagbo have regained terrain and they have full control of the Plateau and Cocody area," Le Roy said, referring to districts of the commercial capital Abidjan where his residence and diplomats' homes are located.
Abidjan was a ghost town on Saturday morning. A Reuters witness in the northern district of Gesco said the few people in the streets were seeking food and water or trying to escape before fighting resumed. France, the former colonial power in Ivory Coast, said Gbagbo's forces had fired at the residence of the French ambassador late on Friday, prompting counter-strikes by French attack helicopters.
Gbagbo, who has refused to cede power to Ouattara despite UN-certified results showing he lost a November election, remains isolated in the bunker under his residence where he has sought refuge from a concerted assault by Ouattara's troops. Only three days ago, his defeat had appeared imminent and talks took place between the two sides. Le Roy said on Friday fighting was still going on but there was a stalemate.
"We have seen heavy weapons to be transferred to the Cocody area, including this morning," he said. Gbagbo adviser Toussaint Alain denied the French ambassador's residence had been attacked. "France is just looking for a pretext to get rid of President Laurent Gbagbo," Alain told Reuters in Paris. In another sign of Gbagbo regaining influence, his RTI television, silent since fierce fighting broke out in Abidjan this week, came back on air broadcasting an appeal for support.
"The regime of Gbagbo is still in place, a strong mobilisation is required by the population," it said. Gbagbo, who has ruled Ivory Coast since 2000, is defended by around 1,000 men - his presidential guard and youth militiamen, but Ouattara allies say he has also armed civilians.
Ouattara has based himself in the Golf Hotel since the November 28, 2010 election, which was meant to draw a line under a 2002-3 civil war which split the world's top cocoa producer in two. Le Roy said Gbagbo's forces were edging towards the building, which has been under UN guard.
"While we speak they may be very close to the Golf Hotel," he said. French helicopters struck Gbagbo's compound on Friday evening, hours after an attack by Gbagbo's forces on the nearby residence of the French envoy, witnesses said. Frederick Daguillon, spokesman for the French force in Ivory Coast, said military efforts to evacuate diplomatic staff from an unidentified country were cancelled due to the heavy presence of Gbagbo forces.
"The commander of the force judged that the conditions were not right to extract these people," he said, adding French helicopters in the effort exchanged fire with Gbagbo forces and destroyed at least one armoured vehicle.
Residents in Cocody said later the situation was now quiet, "Yesterday (pro-Gbagbo) militia men came to our house, we were threatened," said Jean Kima, a man from Burkina Faso living in Abidjan with his family. "We are trying to get out, to Bouake. The militia could come back at any moment and perhaps the worst will happen next time."
Aid workers from the Ivorian Red Cross were able to circulate in Abidjan aboard seven ambulances helping the sick and wounded on Friday, according to a spokeswoman. "They are working under extremely difficult conditions, gunshots are heard all the time," Nicole Engelbrecht, spokeswoman of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told Reuters on Saturday.