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Following a siege on his compound incumbent president of the Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, was forcibly removed and detained on Monday, ending a four-month standoff. The once-prosperous country has been embroiled in a civil war since 2002 but a sudden surge in violence was brought on by Gbagbo’s refusal to leave office after losing to Alassane Ouattara during last November’s presidential elections. Gbagbo used the military to terrorize citizens and forced Ouattara to hide in a hotel in Abidjan. Northern militias fighting in the civil war came to Ouattara’s aid. After having spent four months fortifying the palace and stocking up on supplies, Gbagbo barricaded himself inside. France and the UN intervened, prompting Gbagbo to call the conflict “France’s Vietnam.” The UN High Commissioner reported last week that it had recovered evidence of a massacre committed against supporters of Laurent Gbagbo in the western Ivory Coast. Two hundred and forty four bodies have been recovered from the town of Duekoue, bringing the town’s death toll to anywhere between 800 and 1000. An estimated 1 million Ivorians have been displaced by the violence in the capital Abijan alone, with 2 million displaced nationwide.

Guest: Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, and an expert on U.S. foreign policy with a special emphasis on Africa and the developing world.

Read Emira Woods’ articles at www.fpif.org.