20110225
africanews

The upsurge of urban guerilla that has broken out in Abidjan and in the western region of Ivory Coast may augur a return to civil war in the West African cocoa-rich country. Heavy fighting occurred between FDS (pro-Gbagbo security forces) and an mysterious combat unit, calling itself "the invisible commando", in the working-class district of Abobo (a Ouattara stronghold, in the north of Abidjan) early this week, as the AU panel stepped up efforts to break the impasse over the country disputed election.

Many residents have been fleeing with their belongings as the fighting intensified.
"There are ongoing clashes with heavy weapons in Abobo and the closest district of Anyama. Deafening sound of machine guns and sound of rocket blasting have made these places a real nightmare. I can no longer stay here with my family”, said Djika Paulin, a 43-year-old Abobo resident who was fleeing Abobo on foot on the main road leading from the neighborhood.

Many civilians, Abobo dwellers, were leaving their homes on foot earlier this day, as the pro-Gbagbo security forces cordoned off the area and turned back all cars attempting to drive in. Some beard their belongings wrapped in sheets on their heads, other pushed wooden carts, old persons and those weakened by diseases were transported in wheelbarrows.

“It is not the little pops of Kalashinikovs that FDS used to shoot during nighttime curfew. This time, it is more serious. I think the country will sink into chaos again”, said on the phone, Koumba Salifou, a former Abobo dweller who settled in Cocody, another suburb of Abidjan, two days ago.

Fofana Tiègbè, another resident who prefer to leave the area said it is unsafe for him to lock up at home, since “[…] an untold number of civilians in the neighborhood have been disappeared and nobody is able to find their bodies”.
The situation has shifted from mere street demonstrations, opposing pro-Gbagbo security forces to protesters to violent clashes opposing the Gbagbo allied forces and a force calling itself the "invisible commando", believed to include former rebels. The fighting claimed lives on both sides even if it is quite difficult to say which figure is right.

In a communiqué beamed on RTI, the State broadcaster, the spokesman of FDS, Colonel-Major Gouhourou Babri Hillaire said up to 10 Gbagbo loyalists were killed in Abobo on Tuesday in an ambush by gunmen and 3 invaders were shot dead.

In a statement overnight, broadcast on TCI (Télé Côte d’Ivoire –a TV station run from Golf Hotel), Captain Alla Kouakou Leon, the spokesperson of Ouattara’s Defense Minister said the “invisible commando” killed 27 police officers in an ambush on Tuesday in Abobo. In addition to the 27 dead security forces, he said it had also taken hostage three officers belonging to an elite paramilitary unit, set fire to one armored personnel carrier and had seized three paramilitary vehicles, 32 Kalashnikovs, several machine guns, four rocket-propelled grenades and two cases of grenades.

Hamadoun Toure, the UN Mission spokesman in the country warned: "Before it were clashes between police and protesters. Now if it is the beginning of fighting between two armed forces, it could have serious consequences for the country or even the region".