Military sources say former rivals in the forces that liberated Abidjan and installed the democratically elected President turned their guns on each other in a serious setback in C?te d'Ivoire beginning to return to normal.
Residents said heavy machine-gun shaken the suburb of Abobo on 12 p.m. (et) Wednesday on renegade seat of Lord Ibrahim Coulibaly from "IB".
Two military sources have confirmed that the new army former rebels led by the Prime Minister and Defence Minister Guillaume Soro attacked headquarters of the Coulibaly but met with fierce fighting that lasted more than an hour.
The shock comes nine days after the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to accept his electoral defeat and took position in the final in the commercial capital of Abidjan.
While shelling shook the walls of the houses in the suburb of Yopougon, the rest of the commercial capital of Ivory Coast tried to inch back to normality.
Traffic was back in the streets and shops reopened, although there is a shortage of many things - including money. The banks have not reopened and officials said they were trying to obtain the currency sent the regional bank in Dakar, Senegal, West Africa.
Earlier Wednesday, William Dufourcq of Action against hunger said that the fighting was so intense Yopougon his French charity could not get by issuing water to about 4,000 people who have sought refuge in a church. A resident of the sprawling suburb said Wednesday that troops loyal to the elected President, Mr. Alassane Ouattara were launching shells in the neighbourhood and the civil pro-Gbagbo supporters were trying to get out.
Ghana said Wednesday that it evacuated its diplomats, with Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohammed Mumuni of Ghana, citing "the deteriorating security situation."
"The war is over"- Oouttara soldier Haled Traore
Ouattara high commanders were on the premises of the resumption of the fighting, said guards of the former military headquarters of the Republican Guard which is now used by the armed forces emerging.
Some government employees returned to work this week, and more joining them on Wednesday. But many of the buildings of the Government, including the Parliament, have been looted of computers and furniture.
Haled Traore, a commander of the soldiers who helped install Ouattara to power, April 11, said that the fighters have been ordered to return vehicles looted and owners presenting documents for vehicles have their return. Hundreds of vehicles taken by the forces of pro-Ouattara remained a Gesco gas station, just to the North of Abidjan.
"We need them to continue the war,"Traore told Associated Press""."
In view of the continued fighting in Yopougon, that statement might be premature, even if the level of fighting was much less intense than in previous weeks.
Gbagbo had stubbornly refused to accept defeat in elections on November 28 and has taken a final position in Abidjan, where its soldiers involved rockets and mortars against civilians.
More than a million people have fled the capital and another million displaced within Ivory Coast or are refugees in neighbouring countries.
Thousands have been killed and wounded with two sides commit atrocities during the four-month impasse, according to the International Federation based in Geneva for the Red Cross.
Ivory Coast has been divided between North and South since a 2002 rebellion against Gbagbo. November 28 elections were supposed to bring together the countries of West Africa, which is the main producer of cocoa.
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