The United Nations has warned supporters of Ivory Coast incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo that an attack on the hotel headquarters of internationally recognised winner Alassane Ouattara could restart civil war.
Mr Gbagbo is refusing to hand over power to Mr Ouattara, recognised by the international community as having won recent elections. While Mr Gbagbo clings to office and has control of the armed forces, Mr Ouattara is holed up in a hotel with supporters.
A pro-Gbagbo youth leader has said that Mr Ouattara and his supporters have until tomorrow to "pack up their bags".
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is "deeply alarmed" by these comments.
Mr Nesirky said that the UN operation in Ivory Coast has deployed a large number of soldiers and police officers to the Golf Hotel to protect Mr Ouattara administration officials. He said those troops are authorised "to use all necessary means" to protect their own personnel, the officials at the hotel and any other civilians.
Mr Ban said an attack on the hotel could provoke widespread violence that could reignite civil war, and he called on those planning it to "refrain from such dangerous irresponsible action," Mr Nesirky said.
Under a peace deal after the 2002-2003 civil war, the UN was tasked with certifying the results of the November 28th election. The UN declared Mr Ouattara the winner, echoing the country's own electoral commission chief.
Mr Gbagbo insists he won, pointing out that the Ivory Coast constitutional council
declared him the winner. The council, which is led by a Gbagbo ally, did so after invalidating half a million ballots from Ouattara strongholds in the north.
The United States and other world powers have insisted Mr Gbagbo hand over power
to Mr Ouattara. For many, the credibility of the international community is at stake if it is unable to ensure a handover of power.
Chaos in Ivory Coast, once a West African economic powerhouse with skyscrapers
dominating this seaside commercial centre, has already kept Mr Gbagbo in power five
years beyond his mandate.
The country's long-delayed presidential election was finally held in October. The vote was intended to help reunify the country .
Instead, the election has renewed divisions that threaten to plunge the country back into civil war. While Ivory Coast was officially reunited in a 2007 peace deal, Mr Ouattara still draws his support from the northern half of the country, where residents feel they are often treated as foreigners within their own country by southerners.
Meanwhile, human rights groups warned that security forces loyal to Mr Gbagbo were abducting political opponents after the disputed election as reports of dozens of bodies being dumped near a large forest have emerged.
Now the United Nations believes up to 80 bodies may have been moved to a building nestled among shacks in a pro-Gbagbo neighbourhood. Investigators have tried to go there several times before truckloads of men with guns forced them to leave.
Ecowas, the Economic Community of West African States, has sent combat troops to several nations in the past two decades. But defence officials from the member states have decided to give negotiations more time, saying mediators would return to Ivory Coast next week.
AP