Fighters loyal to Ivorian president-elect Alassane Ouattara attacked the residence
of incumbent Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan early on Friday and seized control of Ivory
Coast's state television. They entered the city on Thursday after a swift offensive
south aimed at ousting Gbagbo, who has refused to cede power since a Nov. 28 election
that U.N.-certified results showed he lost. Nearly 500 people have died and more than
a million have been displaced by political violence. Some 10,000 people have taken
refuge in a Catholic Church in the city of Duékoué which has become engulfed in fighting.
During his weekly general audience on Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI announced that
he was sending Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice
and Peace, to Ivory Coast to express, “[his] solidarity and that of the universal
Church to victims of conflict and to promote reconciliation and peace.” Listen
to Chris Altieri's report: