As my colleague Adam Nossiter reports, Laurent Gbagbo, the Ivorian president who had refused to stand down after losing an election in November, “was captured on Monday after a weeklong siege of his residence.”
The first images of Mr. Gbagbo in custody were broadcast by the Ivorian channel Télévision Côte d’Ivoire, which supports Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of the disputed election.
This brief TCI report announcing Mr. Gbagbo’s arrest is in French, but it begins with an exhaled sigh of relief from the anchor – “Ouff” – that needs no translation. He continued, simply: “Gbagbo is finished; Ivory Coast is liberated.”
A spokesman for Mr. Ouattara, Appolinaire Yapi, told reporters that Mr. Gbagbo is being held at the Golf Hôtel in Abidjan, the Ivorian commercial capital. According to Mr. Yapi, the former president “seemed shattered, a little lost. Weakened. Someone with a lot on his mind.”
Mr. Gbagbo’s arrest came one day after French and United Nations helicopters fired missiles at forces loyal to him in and around his residence in Abidjan. The international forces said that their military intervention was essential for protecting civilians, but Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters said it was proof that he had been the victim of a foreign plot.
This video, which appears to show some of the international strikes on Sunday in Abidjan was posted on YouTube by a supporter of Mr. Gbagbo who claimed that it showed the French military “bombing civilians.”