Ivory Coast’s Gbagbo captured by French troops!

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - April 11, 2011 - Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo was arrested on Monday after French armored vehicles closed in on the compound where he has been holed up in a bunker.

A column of more than 30 French armored vehicles moved in on Gbagbo's residence in central Abidjan after helicopter gunships attacked the compound overnight.

"Yes, he has been arrested," said Affoussy Bamba, a spokeswoman for President Alassane Dramane Ouattara.
Earlier, a Gbagbo adviser Toussaint Alain told reporters in Paris, "Gbagbo has been arrested by French special forces in his residence and has been handed over to the rebel leaders."

Gbagbo's spokesman in Ivory Coast, Ahoua Don Mello, said, "President Laurent Gbagbo came out of his bunker and surrendered to the French without opposing resistance."

Bamba said Gbagbo had been taken to the Hotel Golf in Abidjan, where Ouattara has had his headquarters since the presidential election last November.

Gbagbo refused to step down after Ouattara won the 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.

Residents reported heavy fighting on Monday morning between forces loyal to Ouattara and those backing Gbagbo around Abidjan's Cocody and Plateau districts, still controlled by forces loyal to Gbagbo.