Sporadic gunfire rang out in an Abidjan neighbourhood and terrified residents fled with their belongings, witnesses said today, as Ivory Coast's post-election crisis turned increasingly violent.
Fighting also erupted in the west of the country, according to army and United Nations peacekeeping officials, in what appeared to be an escalation of the power struggle.
Clashes between forces loyal to incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo and his rival Alassane Ouattara, who won a November 28th presidential election, according to UN certified results, have intensified this week.
Residents in Abobo, a pro-Ouattara stronghold of the main city Abidjan which has seen the heaviest of three days of clashes, said shooting rang out this morning after a night of relative calm.
The increasingly deadly tussle for control of the once prosperous West African state is the outcome of an election that was supposed to reunite it after a 2002-3 war, but has simply worsened divisions.
"The shooting has started again. We hear shots and explosions," Tiemoko Souala said by telephone from central Abobo. "It is difficult to put up with this fear.”
Scores of people were today streaming out of the Aboba, which is in the northern outskirts of Abidjan, carrying suitcases and plastic bags of their belongings on their heads.
Heavy fighting erupted in Abobo yesterday afternoon, after pro-Gbagbo forces reinforced their presence there. A military source said between 10 and 15 Gbagbo loyalists were killed in Abobo on Tuesday in an ambush by gunmen.
A spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission said the new outbreak of fighting in the western 18 Montagnes region was "very worrying".
Well over 300 people have died in suppressed street protests and armed clashes since the power struggle began. The economy has also ground to a halt as sanctions aimed at squeezing the president from power have hit ports and the cocoa industry.
Mr Ouattara remains holed up in a UN-protected hotel in Abidjan but he has the backing of world leaders as well as rebels who still control the north of the country and are believed to have reinforced their presence in Abidjan.
Reuters