Hundreds flee Abidjan battles

ABIDJAN.
Hundreds of people fleeing battles in Cote d’lvoire’s Abidjan have taken shelter in Catholic missions, a priest said yesterday, amid UN concerns about illegal arms deliveries to one of the warring factions.
About 1 800 people had sheltered in a mission in the city’s northern Abobo suburb at the weekend after last week’s fighting, Augustin Obrou told AFP. Nearly 1 000 more were in a mission at Anyama further north, the priest said.
They had escaped deadly clashes last week between forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to step down as president after being declared loser of November elections, and fighters believed to back his rival Alassane Ouattara.
Entire families had moved into the missions, Obrou said. Food and other supplies had been handed out but were inadequate, he said.
“We were not prepared for this,” the priest said. “People are tired, frightened,” he said, raising concerns that the missions could also be attacked.
The fighting in Abobo, a stronghold of Ouattara who is internationally recognised to have won the November 28 elections, erupted last week as the dragging dispute over the presidency inflamed tensions.
Residents said the area turned into a battle zone as the pro-Gbagbo army started clashing last Tuesday with fighters from a former rebel movement and defected troops believed to support Ouattara.
The fighting, as well as unrest in the west of the country, has seen a surge in refugee numbers, with thousands crossing into Liberia, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said last week.
Obrou said some of the people sheltering in the missions were headed elsewhere. “But others stay because they don’t know where else to go,” he said.
An Abobo resident told AFP the area remained tense yesterday although there had been no new outbreak of fighting since Saturday.
“There is a problem with food, all the shops are closed,” he said. “People are worried, they are staying at home.”
Water and power supplies were cut again yesterday, after being reconnected on Sunday.
The resident, who was not identified, estimated that many people were killed in the fighting, saying he had seen four bodies in the road. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned last week that Cote d’lvoire was on the brink of a new civil war, and also denounced threats made against UN peacekeepers by Gbagbo followers.
Yesterday he called for an urgent Security Council meeting on Cote d’lvoire following reports that three attack helicopters and related materiel from Belarus were being delivered to forces led by Gbagbo.
The first delivery arrived reportedly on a flight which landed late Sunday, and additional flights are scheduled for yesterday, a spokesman for Ban said. – AFP.