Residents flee more gunfire in Ivory Coast's Abidjan

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By Ange Aboa and Loucoumane Coulibaly
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Sporadic gunfire rang out in an Abidjan neighbourhood and terrified residents fled with their belongings, witnesses said on Thursday, as Ivory Coast's post election crisis turned increasingly violent.
Clashes between forces loyal to incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo and his rival Alassane Ouattara, who won a November 28 presidential election, according to U.N. certified results, have intensified in the top cocoa grower's main city this week.
Residents in Abobo, a pro-Ouattara stronghold which has seen the heaviest of three days of clashes, said shooting rang out early on Thursday after a night of relative calm.
The increasingly deadly tussle for control of the once prosperous West African state is the outcome of an election that was supposed to reunite it after a 2002-3 war, but has simply worsened divisions.
"The shooting has started again. We hear shots and explosions," Tiemoko Souala told Reuters by telephone from the main roundabout in central Abobo.
"It is difficult to put up with this fear," he added.
A Reuters reporter on the road into Abobo saw scores of people streaming out of the neighbourhood to flee the fighting, which is in the northern outskirts of Abidjan, carrying suitcases and plastic bags of their belongings on their heads.
ICE cocoa prices hit a new 32-year high of $3,645 a tonne in early trading, mainly on the tensions.
Another witness reported shooting on Thursday near an area called PK18 when a helicopter flew overhead, but said it did not last very long.
"We quickly returned to our houses. There is no one in the streets," said Abdoulaye Kone.
Heavy fighting erupted in Abobo on Wednesday afternoon, after pro-Gbagbo forces reinforced their presence there. A military source said between 10 and 15 Gbagbo loyalists were killed in Abobo on Tuesday in an ambush by gunmen.
Well over 300 people have died in suppressed street protests and armed clashes since the power struggle began. The economy has also ground to a halt as sanctions aimed at squeezing Gbagbo from power have hit ports and the cocoa industry.
Ouattara remains holed up in a U.N.-protected hotel in Abidjan but he has the backing of world leaders as well as rebels who still control the north of the country and are believed to have reinforced their presence in Abidjan.
The clashes this week came as African leaders charged with resolving the crisis held talks with Gbagbo and Ouattara.
But Ivorians are pinning their hopes on diplomacy.
"I am going to see if I can leave the neighbourhood to go and stay in Yopougon (another neighbourhood) until this ends," said Francois Kouakou.
"I have never seen anything like this. I can't stay here."