The house where Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo was holed up before being grabbed is now a mess of pockmarked walls and hastily abandoned possessions.
|||Abidjan - A week after Laurent Gbagbo's reign collapsed under a torrent of mortar fire, the residence where the Ivory Coast strongman had holed up was a mess of charred vehicles, pockmarked walls and hastily abandoned possessions.
After months of spurning international calls to cede power to Alassane Ouattara, Gbagbo was finally ousted on April 11 in a final assault on his residence by forces loyal to Ouattara, backed by French and United Nations troops.
On Monday, Ouattara's prime minister Guillaume Soro toured the residence with reporters, but the press were barred from the underground room where the besieged Gbagbo was finally arrested.
The entrance to the palatial residence appeared to have been hit by heavy shelling, with a gaping hole in the perimeter wall and two burnt-out armoured vehicles nearby.
The base of Gbagbo's Republican Guards near the main gate was in ruins, as was a position of the presidential guards, where the walls also bore marks of heavy shelling.
The mortar attacks eventually opened the way for Ouattara's forces to reach Gbagbo, whom they had been unable to dislodge after days of fighting.
In the compound, a tarmac road lead to the main building, where Gbagbo, his wife Simone, children and grandchildren, as well as some hundred other people, had been holed up for several days before the attack.
Further inside, about 30 civilian 4x4 vehicles, some with doors open and with bullet holes, were abandoned.
The former president's offices and other rooms had been left in a mess, with books, documents, photo albums, furniture and other items all over the floor.
A similar mess could be seen in Simone Gbagbo's upstairs room, where a shelf stacked with a series of religious DVDs entitled The Evangelical Revolution remained standing.
The floor was littered with documents, some of which pertained to the disputed November 28 elections that Ouattara was internationally recognised to have won, notably on cases of fraud.
The First Lady's Daily Agenda sheet was still on the wall, stuck with adhesive tape and according to which Simone had three meetings with visitors on March 28 between 4pm and 5pm.
In her wardrobe, colourful dresses still hung, but some were strewn on the floor while in the bathroom a huge white marble bathtub was still filled with water, beside which a big champagne bottle stood empty.
A children’s bedroom next door had also been left in disarray.
“We have noted the violence and fighting that took place,” said Soro. “We are still wondering why someone could lock himself up in such a residence with his children and grandchildren as if to make a human shield. I am shocked.”
The Red Cross said it had since Friday found the bodies of four soldiers and a civilian in adjacent buildings. - Sapa-AFP
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/gbagbo-s-home-lies-in-ruins-1.1058525
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