World Bank Cuts Ivorian Financing as Crisis Deepens

[Elmore Furth]

Source: Reuters

PARIS/ABIDJAN (Reuters) - France asked its citizens to leave Ivory Coast and the World Bank froze funding to the West African state on Wednesday, as a violent power struggle deepened between incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and his rival presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara.

Gbagbo has refused to quit following a November 28 election that African countries and Western powers say he lost to Ouattara, in a dispute that has already killed 50 people and threatens to rekindle a civil war.

A key Ouattara aide said the "only solution" to the crisis was for the international community to consider using force to oust Gbagbo.

"We ask those who can to leave Ivory Coast temporarily until the situation normalizes," French government spokesman Francois Baroin told reporters in Paris. There are now about 13,000 French nationals in the former French colony.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/12/22/world/international-us-ivorycoast.html?ref=world