Abidjan: Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo has dismissed reports he is surrendering to troops loyal to his rival. Speaking over phone from his bunker, he said his military were only negotiating a truce and insisted he had won November’s presidential election.
Troops loyal to the internationally recognised winner, Alassane Ouattara, swept into Abidjan this week.
The city passed a largely quiet night, apart from shootings blamed on gangs.
But its population of four million remained indoors after days of heavy fighting which saw UN and French helicopters attacking Gbagbo’s military.
Western powers have stepped up pressure on Gbagbo to resign, with US President Barack Obama saying the violence could have been averted if Gbagbo had respected the election result.
Piling the psychological pressure on the discredited leader and his allies, pro-Ouattara television station TCI played extracts from Downfall, the feature film about the final days of Adolf Hitler in his bunker in Berlin.
Gbagbo told French news channel LCI that his army was “currently discussing the conditions of a ceasefire with the other forces on the ground” but “on the political level no decision has yet been taken”.
“I won the election and I’m not negotiating my departure,” he said.
“I find it absolutely incredible that the entire world is playing this… game of poker.”
His remarks contrasted with a statement from his spokesman, Ahoua Don Mello, who told media there were “direct negotiations based on African Union recommendations which said Alassane Ouattara is president”.
Gbagbo accused France, the former colonial power, of making war on his country, saying: “I don’t understand how an electoral dispute in Ivory Coast has brought about the direct intervention of the French army.”
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