ABIDJAN/NOUAKCHOTT, (Reuters) – Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo has paid over 60 percent of civil servant salaries, his government said yesterday, suggesting Western sanctions meant to starve him of funds and force him to leave have not had full effect.
The north of the country, which mostly supports Gbagbo’s opponent Alassane Ouattara, remained without electricity and water services, but a week of clashes between supporters of the two rivals appeared to have eased.
African leaders called off a planned mediation trip and instead invited Ouattara and Gbagbo, as well as the head of the country’s Constitutional Council, to the next AU summit, at which a solution to the crisis would be proposed.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton again called for Gbagbo to step down, criticizing his “selfish effort to cling to power despite losing the election.”
“Gbabgo and his forces have shown a callous disregard for human life and the rule of law, preying on the unarmed and the innocent. He should step aside immediately in the name of peace,” Clinton said in a statement.
The world’s top cocoa grower has been paralyzed by Gbagbo’s refusal to step down after a November election that internationally certified results showed Ouattara had won. The United Nations says at least 365 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes as a result.
International cocoa futures have been regularly breaking new 32-year highs on supply fears due to the violence.
Some 200,000 have left the Abidjan neighborhood of Abobo alone during days of urban warfare last week.
U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said in New York that the refugee situation was becoming “increasingly alarming,” with more than 80,000 having reached Liberia and more expected in the coming days and weeks.
