Awwal 04, 1432 H/Feb 07, 2011, SPA -- At least two people were killed on Monday in clashes between security forces loyal to incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and residents of a neighbourhood popular with his rival, the local mayor's office said, according to Reuters. Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara are locked in a violent power struggle over a disputed Nov. 28 election that U.N. certified results show Ouattara won, but which Gbagbo, backed by security forces, has refused to concede. A senior official at the mayor's office in pro-Ouattara neighbourhood Abobo, where tensions are running high between residents and pro-Gbagbo forces, said a scuffle broke out between them outside a local police station. "There was an altercation and it degenerated. The security forces open fire on the civilians and there were at least two deaths, but we don't know who the dead were," the official said, declining to be named for fear of his own life. A resident said the military shut down the area and diverted traffic after the incident. Spokesmen for Gbagbo's military and police were not immediately available for comment. Abobo has become a tinderbox since the election, which was meant to reunite a country divided since a 2002-3 war, but has instead deepened divisions. At least six policemen and some civilians were killed in clashes there in January. The United Nations say at least 260 people have been killed in the poll dispute, many of them in raids by pro-Gbagbo forces and allied militias on pro-Ouattara neighbourhoods. Police loyal to Gbagbo raided supporters of his rival in the east on Tuesday, killing one person and wounding at least nine, a local charity worker who carried the wounded to hospital said.
