Ivory Coast’s Gbagbo held after French troops move in

ABIDJAN,  (Reuters) – Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo  was arrested today after French armoured vehicles closed in  on the compound where the self-proclaimed president had been  holed up in a bunker.
A column of more than 30 French armoured vehicles moved in  on Gbagbo’s residence in Abidjan after helicopter gunships  attacked the compound overnight in bid to end a months-long  political standoff that had descended into civil war.
Gbagbo refused to step down when Alassane Ouattara won last  November’s presidential election, according to results certified  by the United Nations, reigniting a civil war that has claimed  more than a thousand lives and uprooted a million people.
“Yes, he has been arrested,” Affoussy Bamba, a spokeswoman  for Ouattara, told Reuters.
Gbagbo’s spokesman in Ivory Coast, Ahoua Don Mello, told  Reuters: “President Laurent Gbagbo came out of his bunker and  surrendered to the French without offering resistance.”
French officials said Gbagbo had been arrested by Ouattara’s  forces backed by the United Nations and the French military.
Shortly after the news broke, Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said  the French president had just had a long telephone conversation  with Ouattara.
French armed forces spokesman Thierry Burkhard said: “Just  after 3 o’clock, the ex-president Laurent Gbagbo handed himself  over to the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast. At no moment did  French forces enter either the garden or the residence of  Gbagbo.”
A French Defence Ministry official said: “It’s not French  forces who arrested Laurent Gbagbo … It was Ouattara forces  supported by UNOCI (the U.N. mission) and Licorne (French  forces).”
Ouattara’s spokesman Bamba said Gbagbo had been taken to the  Hotel Golf in Abidjan where his rival has had his headquarters  since the presidential election last November.
United Nations officials confirmed Gbagbo was being held by  Ouattara’s forces.
“The nightmare has ended,” Ouattara’s Prime Minister  Guillaume Soro said on Ouattara’s TCI television channel.