Ivory Coast Rebels Want President Out, New Cabinet
The leader of Ivory Coast’s rebel movement called on President Laurent Gbagbo to quit and invited his opponents to set up a new government, in a fresh sign of widening divisions in the West African country. Guillaume Soro, secretary-general of the New Forces who control the northern half of the country, said Friday Gbagbo had defied the constitution with bloody crackdowns on opponents and gone against a peace plan by firing three ministers this week. “The New Forces demand the unconditional and immediate departure of Laurent Gbagbo from power,” Soro said in a speech billed as an address to the Ivorian nation, delivered in a cinema in the rebel stronghold of Bouake. Full Story