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ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- Surrounded by troops backing Ivory Coast's democratically elected leader, strongman Laurent Gbagbo huddled in a bunker at his home with his family Tuesday and tried to negotiate terms of surrender, officials said.
Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara have seized the presidential residence where Gbagbo tried to wrest last-ditch concessions, said a senior diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. He also said Gbagbo's closest adviser and longtime friend had abandoned him, leaving the bunker for the French ambassador's home.
Ouattara, who Ivory Coast's electoral commission and the United Nations said won the November elections, has urged forces loyal to him to take Gbagbo alive.
United Nations and French forces opened fire with attack helicopters on Gbagbo's arms stockpiles and bases on Monday after four months of political deadlock in the former French colony in West Africa. Columns of foot soldiers allied with Ouattara also finally pierced the city limits of Abidjan.
Now that I am slowly recovering from the initial shock of this news as no one had mentioned that Abraham Kai Sellu had been ill, I feel I should send this message of condolence to not just the Kai Sellu family but to all of us Academicians. Indeed the music called 'Abraham Kai Sellu' is truly ended, but its melody will for all times linger" - adapted from 'Ode to a Nightingale' by Keats. My heart goes out to the Kai Sellu family. My mind goes back to those early days when we were new at the Albert Academy and will never forget the congenial welcome he gave us as the second group of girls coming into Lower Six - the original set was his own class mates - including Dr. Tuzeline Young, Cecelia John, and others.
How can we, my female class mates and I forget his infectious laughter at our grey skirts in various styles and the corresponding 'skirto lappos' of the boys - as Mr Bailor had prohibited any student from wearing tight trousers and of course tight skirts. His efforts at explaining the 'out of bound areas' of the school compound, his encouragement that one could 'double' the cornmeal or bulgur lunch mammy Pillar and sissy Makala prepared put us at ease but also adding if you were privileged to be invited by Mrs Bailor to have lunch at 'the house', to always consider oneself lucky, honored and to be gracious about such an invite.
Sunday March 27 in New Westminster, British Columbia, was rainless but chilly. I was at the city's Mercer stadium to watch a soccer exhibition match and photo shoot organized by the African Canadian Soccer and Cultural Association (ACSCA).
A couple of people were being interviewed and filmed by staff of Africar Television in preparations for the much anticipated and waited ACSCA awards night in Burnaby on May 28. Business owners, association executives and talented soccer players will be receiving awards that night and they were being filmed for a future program on Africar Television, a component of the Shaw Cable-sponsored multicultural programming.
I saw a young man being interviewed. I drew nearer to listen to what he had to say. He was talking about setting up a digital library in the West African country of Sierra Leone. I got interested and after Abu (that's the young man's name) finished speaking and moved away from the television camera, I struck up a conversation with him and discovered that he is the chairman of a new youth organization in Burnaby, BC, called the Sierra Leone Progressive Youth Association.
Abu was with his Secretary General Christopher Smith, who is studying film and documentary making at a Vancouver film school.
Abu, an electrician and Computer Engineering student at Simon Fraser University, told me that their organization was founded two years ago and that their main aim and objective is to help poor, marginalised and war affected young people back in Sierra Leone, their country of origin.
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