Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Senegal renewed calls for military intervention to end the post-election stalemate in Ivory Coast, where clashes in the commercial capital, Abidjan, marked escalating tensions in the world’s top cocoa grower.
Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade is lobbying leaders in the Economic Community of West African States to stand by a Dec. 24 pledge to use military force to remove incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo from power if he refuses to step down in favor of Alassane Ouattara, said Papa Dieng, an adviser to Wade. The United Nations recognizes Ouattara as winner of the presidential election in November.
“Gbagbo has to leave by any means necessary, even military means,” Dieng said yesterday in an interview in Senegal’s capital, Dakar. “If he stays there, African leaders will feel there’s no need to ever concede an election.”
One person was killed in Abobo, a suburb of Abidjan, said Yves Doumbia, a spokesman for the town’s mayor said today. The streets were empty as residents stayed indoors to avoid the fighting. People “are very scared,” said resident Ladji Soumahoro by phone today. “Early this morning, security forces prevented people from leaving the area to go to work.” Gunfire was also heard in the suburb of Williamsville, where one of the city’s main police barracks are located.
Cocody, Riviera Explosions
A police truck was burned in Abobo, Doumbia said by phone today, while Abidjan’s affluent Cocody and Riviera suburbs were rocked with explosions at 2 a.m. today, witnesses including resident Francois Durand said.
“I heard at least 10 explosions, either from grenade launchers or some kind of cannon, and sustained gunfire from Kalashnikovs,” Durand said. Ouattara is currently blockaded in a hotel in Riviera by the army, while the majority of Abobo’s inhabitants are his supporters.
Ouattara won 59 percent of votes in Abobo, according to the electoral commission, which named him the overall winner. Gbagbo, 65, refuses to cede power, citing a ruling by the Constitutional Council that annulled votes in parts of Ivory Coast’s north on fraud allegations and gave him victory. Gbagbo has retained the loyalty of the army, while Ouattara is backed by the African Union, the U.S. and former colonial ruler France.
Search for Weapons
At least four people were killed yesterday after security forces loyal to Gbagbo conducted a house-to-house search for weapons in Abobo, according to Mustapha Ouattara, a spokesman for the pro-Ouattara RHDP coalition. A doctor at the military hospital in the city said nine members of the security forces were shot and injured, state-owned RTI television reported.
A United Nations patrol was halted by a roadblock as it attempted to enter Abobo, Kenneth Blackman, deputy spokesman for the UN mission in Ivory Coast, said yesterday. Peacekeepers were pelted with stones by civilians whose political affiliation wasn’t clear, Blackman said. The UN peacekeepers are protecting Ouattara headquarters in Abidjan.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked the security council to agree to send 2,000 soldiers and three attack helicopters to the West African nation to deter the threat of violence, as “the precarious situation could quickly degenerate into widespread conflict”.
The UN’s 9,100 peacekeepers and civilian police are “operating in an openly hostile security environment with direct threats from regular and irregular forces” loyal to Gbagbo, Ban said in a Jan. 7 letter to Ambassador Ivan Barbalic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, president of the UN Security Council this month. The body is due to discuss the situation in Ivory Coast on Jan. 14.
Deaths Reported
An estimated 210 people have been killed in post-election violence, the UN said last week before the Abobo clashes. As many as 25,000 people have fled from the west of the country into neighboring Liberia, and are arriving at a rate of about 600 each day, the UN’s refugee agency said in a statement yesterday.
Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga is due to return to Ivory Coast this week in his second attempt to find a resolution to the conflict. He follows former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who made an unannounced visit to the country Jan. 8.
John Atta Mills, the president of neighboring Ghana said on Jan. 7 it will not contribute troops to an Ecowas intervention, saying he doubted it would “bring peace.”
Missed Payment
Amid the political crisis, Ivory Coast missed a $29 million interest payment on its $2.3 billion of Eurobonds on Dec. 31. It has a 30-day period of grace to make the payment.
The government is “fully committed” to meeting payment obligations to avoid defaulting on the bonds, said Annick Kone, a spokeswoman for the finance ministry, in an interview today. Finance and Economy Minister Desire Dallo sent a letter to bondholders dated Jan. 10, saying the country would honor the obligation within the grace period.
The statement caused the Eurobonds to jump the most in intraday trading yesterday since being issued in April, gaining as much as 11 percent. They traded 3.5 percent lower at 39.375 cents on the dollar at 2:21 p.m. in Abidjan today, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The yield on the bond, due December 2032, increased to 16.220 percent.
Cocoa prices have risen 7.4 percent since the election and climbed for a fourth straight day today, adding $16, or 0.6 percent, to $2,950 per metric ton at 2:22 p.m. in London trading.
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