ABIDJAN, (Reuters) – Army chiefs who fought for Ivory Coast’s former leader Laurent Gbagbo pledged their loyalty to his rival Alassane Ouattara yesterday, helping the chances of an end to conflict a day after his forces captured Gbagbo. Gbagbo’s arrest on Monday ended a four-month power struggle that had descended into all-out conflict.
But Ouattara — recognised internationally as the West African nation’s president — now faces a huge task reuniting a divided country.
In a boost to his legitimacy, Ouattara won the backing of Gbagbo’s former military top brass, his TCI television station said.
It said that Philippe Mangou, Gbagbo’s former army chief of staff, as well as “all the generals of the ground, air and navy forces” had sworn their loyalty to Ouattara.
His aide de camp told Reuters Mangou had called on all police and security forces to back Ouattara after talks at Ouattara’s headquarters in the main city Abidjan.
The backing of the military is crucial if Ouattara, who won a November presidential election according to U.N.-certified results, is to finally begin asserting his authority after Gbagbo’s exit.
Ouattara’s forces captured Gbagbo, who had refused to step down, after French helicopter gunships, tanks and troops closed on the bunker where he had been holed up for the past week.
That has left Ouattara as the sole leader in charge of the country, the world’s largest cocoa producer, although analysts say it may not be enough to stop violence and heal deep wounds.
“I call on my fellow countrymen to abstain from all forms of reprisal and violence,” Ouattara said in a televised speech late on Monday, calling for “a new era of hope”.
“Our country has turned a painful page in its history,” he said, urging marauding youth militias to lay down their weapons and promising to restore security to the battered nation.
