9.18am: Good morning. Welcome to live coverage of events in the Ivory Coast where forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, widely recognised as the winner of last year's election, have launched a "final offensive" on Abidjan, in a bid to oust the incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo.

• Gbagbo's presidential palace has been surrounded by troops loyal to Ouattara after UN helicopters attacked Gbagbo's heavy weaponry.

• A spokesman for Ouattara's government told Reuters his troops had already taken control of Gbagbo's official presidential residence, but his statement could not be independently verified. Patrick Achi said he did not know whether Gbagbo was there or not.

• Ouattara's ambassador to France, Ally Coulibaly, told French radio RFI he believes Laurent Gbagbo is "negotiating his surrender", France24 reports.

9.21am: This YouTube video purportedly shows the assault by UN MI-24 helicopters on the Akouedo military camp last night.

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9.32am: The crisis is trending on Twitter at #civ2010 and #civsocial, according to Global Voices.

9.36am: Here's some more information on the claim by Ouattara's ambassador to France that Gbagbo is negotiating his surrender. Ali Coulibaly told France Info:

I'm not trying to be demagogical or to add to the disinformation, but according to the information that I have, he's negotiating his surrender because he has realised the end is near. The game is up.

Coulibaly did not provide any further details or say where he got the information.

9.45am: Selay Koussai, our correspondent in Abidjan, describes the "hectic" scenes in the city when the UN and France bombarded Gbagbo's forces:



We could see the fireballs and the smoke in the sky as UN helicopters and French helicopters started bombing the military barracks under the control of pro-Gbagbo forces. It was hectic. We have never witnessed things like this before. In the coming hours we will have a clear idea of the people injured in these bombings. People are saying many people have been injured. The TV station has been targeted, and RTI, which is the state run TV, is off-air today. He [Gbagbo] might be at the presidential palace or at the cathedral, because many people have been urged to form a human shield in the cathedral. The denouement is not so far away. We are witnessing the last hours of this show down between the pro-Gbagbo and pro-Ouattara forces. The area of Mr Gbagbo has been cornered off by the UN troops and the French forces.



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10.00am: Our France correspondent Kim Willsher says French newspapers report today that Ouattara's forces took over the official residence of Gbagbo at 1am local time (2am BST) but there was no information on whether he was at home at the time. She also reports more from Ouattara's ambassador in Paris, who claimed today that the incumbent president is in talks to give himself up. She says Ali Coulibaly told Le Parisien newspaper that those responsible for massacres "will be punished". He said:

Nobody can deny there have been massacres, but president Alassane Ouattara was the first to demand an international inquiry and the Ivoirien government has opened a legal inquiry because nobody knows the precise date or who committed them. But the massacres didn't begin at Duékoué last Tuesday. Alas there were others before and

elsewhere. For several weeks we have been alerting international bodies to the existance of mass graves in the west of the country and certain parts of Abidjan.There will be justice and those guilty will be punished.

10.30am: A video posted on Facebook and circulating on Twitter claims to show civilian victims of the assault by the UN on Gbabgo's forces.

The video is very dark but appears to show corpses laid out on the ground.

Several people on Twitter are claiming that the UN helicopters bombed houses. Whether that is true and whether the people in the video are in fact civilian victims of the UN airstrikes cannot be verified.

10.40am: One of Ouattara ministers, Albert Mabri Toikeusse, has told France24 there is no sign of Gbagbo negotiating surrender, which contradicts the claim by Ouattara's ambassador to Paris, Ali Coulibaly.

10.50am: "It looks like this is the end [for Gbagbo] and the rebels are taking control," says Daniel Balint-Kurti Africa expert and campaigner at Global Witness.

Balint-Kurti, a former agency journalist in the Ivory Coast, wrote an analysis of the crisis for the Royal African Society.

In an Audioboo interview today, he warned of the prospects for civil war.



Ivory Coast is a very very divided society, if Ouattara takes power tomorrow those divisions are not going to disappear. The fighting where rebels went from controlling the northern half of the country to virtually the entire country, will have seen a number of abuses by rebel forces. I think there could be further details of atrocities. We will have to look at what comes out into this investigation into what happened in the western town of Duékoué . The two sides are to blame. The end of the story will not be when Ouattara takes power. Now that the UN and the French have attacked Gbagbo's most strategic sites, his supporters can say look 'it's true, it's proven this really was an international conspiracy'. So even if Gbagbo is captured that propaganda could continue and we could still see further revolts from areas that support Gbagbo.

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11.10am: @cartunelo on Twitter has been filing regular updates from Abidjan. He is tweeting in French but my colleague Alexandra Topping has translated some of his desperate sounding reports:

SOS, Dead and seriously injured at Genie 2000 (road to Bingerville)

since yesterday. Please bring help.

At the Riviera, a pregnant woman in need of a caesarian needs to be

evacuated call etc etc

11.18am: A pro-Gbagbo military source has told Reuters that Ouatarra's forces have not taken over the presidential palace, as has been claimed. The source said:



Despite the bombardments, we are holding all of our positions, meaning the palace, the residence and all of our military bases.

But the international markets have moved in anticipation of a swift end to the conflict, according to Reuters. Cocoa prices moved lower as hopes rose of a resumption of exports from Ivory Coast and the country's defaulted $2.3 billion Eurobond rose as the assault on Gbagbo's palace raised expectations for repayment.

11.23am: The International Organisation for Migration estimates that there are up 25,000 refugees fleeing violence in the Ivory Coast, amid evidence that Malians migrants have been attacked with guns and knives. In a briefing it said:

IOM has received a desperate request for assistance from a group of some 3,000 Malian migrants, including many women and children, who have been living for the past ten days in the basement and the halls of the Malian Embassy in Abidjan. Many have sustained bullet and machete wounds from attacks carried out by armed youth militias loyal to the incumbent president Gbagbo. Without running water for the past 72 hours, they say they dare not walk to the nearby lagoon for fear of further violence.

IOM's director general William Lacy Swing said:

We urge warring parties in Cote d'Ivoire not to target civilians and migrant workers and to ensure their protection and safety. We exhort them to give humanitarians full access to the population and allow the safe evacuation of all migrant workers who wish to return home.

11.31am: The United Nations Children's Fund has also expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in the Ivory Coast. UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake has called on both sides in the conflict to halt the violence against civilians. He said:

UNICEF continues to be gravely concerned by the ongoing violence in Cote d'Ivoire and its alarming impact on children. We are especially troubled by reports that children are among the victims of a mass killing there. And children continue to be recruited by armed forces on all sides of the conflict – a grave violation of their rights which jeopardizes not only their future but also the chances for achieving sustainable peace in Cote d'Ivoire. UNICEF is working to assist those in need with humanitarian supplies, but our programmes have been seriously compromised by the fighting. In the West, UNICEF has been able to reach out to the displaced population with basic supplies, but we urgently need to reach those at risk, especially in Abidjan, where an estimated one million displaced people are in dire need. We fear outbreaks of disease if we and other agencies cannot reach the thousands of internally displaced families. UNICEF joins its voice to the many others who have called upon all sides in this conflict to cease the violence against civilians and to permit humanitarian aid workers to reach those in greatest need.

11.43am: A resident of Abidjan has painted a grim picture of the situation in the city, in a phone call with France 24. The man, whose name was given only as Isaac, said:

I hear gunfire, Kalashnikovs and heavy equipment that Gbagbo's soldiers are using and also the UN and the French helicopters are firing now and Gbagbo's soldiers are backing up. For the moment that's what we see and that's what we hear.

Asked what it was like for residents, Isaac said:

Very difficult. We are out of food. We also are trying to get help from people that still have a little [food] but it's difficult for them even to cross the street because they are shooting from everywhere. Bullets are coming from every alleyway, you cannot step out. you can't get food from anywhere. The only thing we have for the time being is coffee and some snacks.

11.49am: Connectionivoirienne.net is also reporting gunfire in Abidjan based on conversations with residents. They report loud shots from heavy armoury in the Plateau area, where the presidential palace is situated, but also in the south of the city where the 43e BIMA (French marines) and the international airport are situated.

11.57am: The West African bloc Ecowas says it is ready to help ensure a "safe and dignified" exit for Gbagbo, Reuters reports. The 15-member group has urged Gbagbo to step down immediately. In a statement it said:

The (Ecowas) commission urges Mr Gbagbo once again to consider the greater interest of the Ivorian nation, as well as the unacceptably high levels of human suffering, death and destruction, and cede power immediately. In this regard, the commission stands ready to ensure that the conditions prescribed (by the African Union Peace and Security Council), especially with regard to ensuring a safe and dignified exit for Mr Gbagbo, are fulfilled.



Ecowas formally endorsed Ouattara as the winner of the election in an extraordinary summit on 7 December last year. It also suspended Ivory Coast from all its decision-making bodies.

12.08pm: Gbagbo's foreign minister Alcide Djedje has taken refuge at the French ambassador's home, France 24 reports. Djedje has reportedly said that Gbagbo and his family are inside the presidential palace under attack.

Djedje was one of those targeted by UN sanctions against the Gbagbo regime.

12.14pm: A Guardian video shows footage of the assault on Gbagbo's forces.

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12.22pm: If you are new to events in the Ivory Coast the Canadian broadcaster CBC has a very clear article explaining the background to the crisis.

12.24pm: Dr Dominic Zaum, an expert on the UN from the school of politics and international relations at the University of Reading, has warned that the UN Airstrikes threaten to compromise the future role of the organisation in Ivory Coast:

Despite the UN Secretary-General's statements to the contrary, the timing and the nature of yesterday's airstrikes by the UN mission in the Ivory Coast (UNOCI) against Laurent Gbagbo's forces has made the UN party to the conflict. The use of force to protect civilians is undoubtedly covered by the UNOCI's Chapter VII mandate. It might help to shorten the current fighting between the two factions, improving the security of the civilian population. However, siding with forces similarly suspected of brutal attacks against civilians raises questions about UNOCI's impartiality and ability to provide security and build trust between the factions once the immediate conflict is over.

12.33pm: Earlier we reported tweets from @cartunelo, who has been trying to use Twitter to organise the evacuation of seriously injured people and emergency aid for them, including a woman in need of a caesarian.

He seems to have had a partial success:



Fantastic, New Victory, thanks to you the pregnant woman is now being looked after #civsocial, #civ2010 #civsocial The woman who needs a caesarian was taken to hospital in an ambulance, but there is a blood shortage. #civ2010

12.41pm: A spokesman for Gbagbo claims the incumbent president's home has been hit at least 50 times by a United Nations Mi-24 helicopter, AP reports.

Don Ahou Mello also confirmed that a major military camp had been destroyed during Monday's attack.

Mello said that Gbagbo "is still in Abidjan" but refused to speculate on whether he was considering resigning.

1.08pm: Ouattara's forces have seized control of the presidential palace where Laurent Gbagbo is sheltering, a senior diplomat told AP.

1.15pm: Our correspondent in Ivory Coast, Selay Marius Kouassi, says Gbago's army has asked for a ceasefire. General Phillipe Mangou, the chief of staff of Gbagbo's army, said "We've stopped fighting."

1.39pm: The United Nations mission in Ivory Coast (Unoci) has released a statement saying it has received phone calls from three generals saying they had ordered their troops, including the special forces, to stop fighting.

The orders were given by General Philippe Mangou, the chief of staff of the defence and security forces, General Thiape Kassarate Edouard, commander of the national gendarmerie, and General Bruno Dogbo Blé, commander of the Republican guard. Unoci has ordered its troops to receive weapons and offer protection to disarmed troops including special forces.

Mangou sought refuge in the South African embassy last week but then rejoined Gbagbo's forces.

1.44pm: Events seem to be moving very quickly now. The French foreign minister, Alain Juppe, has confirmed that Gbagbo is in negotiations regarding his departure, France 24 reports.

The news channel also says that there does seem to be a ceasefire by Gbagbo's troops in Abidjan, in keeping with the words of three of his generals who said they had stopped fighting.

1.48pm: More on the French foreign minister's response to the reports that Gbagbo is in negotiations to step down, from Reuters. Alain Juppe was asked if he knew about such negotiations. He said:

We are aware. If there are possibilities to see him leave power then we are ready.

1.59pm: The Guardian has an interactive which gives a breakdown of where the fighting is taking place in Ivory Coast. Click on the live page to zoom in on different areas.

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2.07pm: If the reports of a ceasefire are accurate, it cannot come quickly enough. Save the Children says children and their families have been witnessing horrific scenes in Abidjan. The charity's workers in the city have painted a vivid picture of conditions there.



One said:



We are all in the basement. We don't have electricity and there is no light. There is shooting everywhere - it is hard to know what is going on, we don't have internet access or radio. We are in the dark, we are waiting.

Another Save the Children worker from Plateau, a central area of Abidjan that has been the scene of some of the heaviest fighting, said:

Earlier in the morning there were lots of men and women with buckets, getting water from the service station across the street from us. That was before the curfew at noon - families are trying to stock up on water while they can. The part of town we're living in has been out of water for three days. We're lucky that we have some stored up that we can ration out.

Save the Children workers are also in the northern town of Bouaké where hundreds of thousands of people from Abidjan have fled to over the past 10 days. Laurent Duvillier, the charity's spokesman in Bouaké, said:

I've met displaced children from Abidjan who were distressed. Some children were telling me stories of how they were exposed to the violence. Many of them have heard gunshots not just on one day or two days but for many days. Many of them have witnessed lootings, killings and shootings. They were constantly asking themselves when and where the new bullets would fall and when I interviewed them I could really see that the memories of these horrific scenes were still alive.

Save the Children has launched an appeal for £25 million to support its humanitarian response in Ivory Coast.

2.12pm: The French defence minister, Gerard Longuet, said the crisis in Ivory Coast could be resolved in a matter of hours. Longuet said:

We are in the situation where hopefully everything can be solved in a few hours.

2.18pm: Two of Gbagbo's generals are negotiating his surrender, according to the French prime minister, Francois Fillon, France 24 reports.

2.40pm: Here's a summary of developments so far on a day on which the events have moved very quickly:

• Troops loyal to the president elect, Alassane Ouattara, have reportedly entered the presidential palace where incumbent Laurent Gbagbo is sheltering in a bunker. A senior diplomat told AP troops are trying to coax Gbagbo out of his bunker. They surrounded his home after UN helicopters attacked his heavy weaponry in Abidjan.

• Three of Gbagbo's generals have called a ceasefire in the country's main city Abidjan and say they have stopped fighting.

• Two of Gbagbo's generals are negotiating his surrender, according to the French prime minister Francois Fillon. The French foreign minister said the crisis could be over within hours.

• Ivory Coast foreign minister and Gbagbo confidante Alcide Djedje is at the French embassy, next to the presidential palace, amid reports that he has defected. But a lawyer who has represented the government said Djedje was being held "against his will".

• A number of humanitarian organisations have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the Ivory Coast.

2.50pm: Our Africa correspondent David Smith has written about what spurred the UN into intervention:

Enough was enough. The UN peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast (Unoci) had been taking a hammering in recent days. Its base was attacked with heavy weapons, the office of its mission chief hit by sniper fire, and 11 of its peacekeepers shot. It was only under such provocation that the mission finally decided to strike back. For months Unoci has been pinned down in its base, forced to watch as Ivory Coast slid into civil war, with seemingly little will - or ability - to intervene. The International Crisis Group criticised Unoci for being "unable to implement its mandate to protect civilians subjected to violence or the threat of violence". As in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere, the 9,000 peacekeepers have simply lacked the manpower to prevent widespread atrocities over a vast area. They can only return fire when they are shot at.

My colleague Mark Tran writes that the UN currently runs 14 peacekeeping operations and one special political mission in Afghanistan, involving 122,000 personnel, including troops, police, civilians and volunteers. The total cost from July 2010 to June 2011 stood at $7.8bn (£4.8bn). There have been over 2,800 deaths.

Some of the biggest operations are in Africa

• United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Monusco). Started in June 2010. Total personnel of 23,468 including 17,129 troops and 1,270 police. 10 deaths. Cost: $1.3bn. • African Union/United Nations Hybrid operation in Darfur (Unamid). Started July 2007. Total personnel of 27,389 including 17,711 troops and 5,109 police. 81 deaths. $1.8bn. • United Nations Mission in the Sudan (Unmis). Started March 2005. Total personnel of 14, 734 including 9,290 troops. 691 police. 59 deaths. $1bn. • United Nations Mission in Liberia (Unmil). Started September 2003. total personnel of 11,043 including 7,949 troops. 1,319 police. 154 deaths. $524m. • United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (Unoci). Started April 2004. Total personnel of 10,445 including 7,568 troops. 1.317 police. 72 deaths. $485m The other major peacekeeping operations are in Haiti, United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (Minustah), with a total personnel of 13,988 including 8,743 troops and 3,312 police and Lebanon, UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), with a total personnel of 12,762 including 11,766 troops. The operation dates back to 1976. The oldest operation is the UN Truce Supervision Organisation (Untso), which has been operating in the Middle East since 1948. Other peacekeeping operations are in India and Pakistan (Unmogip), Cyprus (Unficyp), Syria (Undof), Western Sahara (Minurso), Kosovo (Unmik) and Timor-Leste (Unmit).

2.54pm: Gbagbo's spokesman says the incumbent president, believed to be in a bunker at the presidential palace, is in negotiations to surrender, France 24 reports.

Here's a profile of Gbagbo by David Smith that is worth reading.

3.01pm: Ouattara appears to be on the brink of finally taking power but how much control does he have over rebels in the country?

Ouattara has tried to keep his distance from the New Forces guerilla movement, which is accused of atrocities in the western city of Duékoué.

How far he controls and influences the rebels is unclear, experts say.

There is no direct link between Ouattara or his RDR party and the New Forces rebels, who were profiled last month by David Smith.

But Ouattara and his supporters have a "coincidence of interests" with the rebels, as one analyst said. Following his apparent election victory over Gbagbo, Ouattara formed a pact with the New Forces. He named one of the founders of the rebel group, Guillaume Soro, as his prime minister.

The pact gave Ouattara access to a military force that controlled the north of Ivory Coast, and later much of the rest of the country.

Ouattara denied any responsibility for the massacre in Duékoué. He has has tried to cultivate an image of being above ethnic hatred.

But the pending investigation into the massacre could pose awkward questions about his connection to the group.

Paul Melly, African expert and associate fellow of the foreign affairs thinktank Chatham House, said:

Ouattara has maintained a purely political profile. There has been no clear evidence of a link to the New Forces rebels. But last week he assumed public responsibility for the rebel advance when he described them as 'republican' forces. We still have no clear evidence as to how far he is in control of the rebels, but he did appoint Guillaume Soro, one of the founders of the New Forces, as prime minister.

3.16pm: This is Mark Tran taking over from Haroon. Reuters has this grim report from Mark John in Abidjan.

A macabre welcoming committee greeted new arrivals to Abidjan from its northern access road on Tuesday morning: a dozen corpses lined up on a road bank by a petrol station, bullet wounds to their heads. The wounds and the neat line-up of the bodies suggest an execution but it is hard to day for sure. A soldier in the forces of Alassane Ouattara, now in control of the area, said they had been shot dead by troops loyal to his rival Laurent Gbagbo as they rushed to greet advancing Ouattara soldiers. What is more certain is that you do not have to go too far to encounter the acrid stench of death in Abidjan, where pro-Ouattara soldiers launched what they vowed was their final assault to unseat Gbagbo on Monday.

3.34pm: Berenger Berehoudougou, who work for Plan International, a children's charity, has just returned from the Liberia and Ivory Coast border where he met refugees fleeing the violence. Here are extracts from his account.

Félicité arrived in Liberia completely naked, carrying three young children under six. She'd walked nearly 150 miles for two weeks through the forest to escape the fighting in Ivory Coast. On the way, she was attacked by bandits. They took everything – even her clothes. She fled the violence in Abidjan on a truck. From the western town of Daloa, she and her sister set off through the forest on foot, taking their three children with them. Her sister didn't make it to Liberia. She was too weak. She's buried in an unmarked grave, somewhere in the bush. Now Félicité, in her early thirties, has her sister's five-year-old daughter to care for, as well as her one-year-old son and three-year-old daughter. She has no idea where their fathers are. In the past month, she has seen several friends and relatives killed in front of

her. Every night in Abobo in Abidjan, she faced militiamen who came to kill and loot houses. All along the Liberia border in Nimba county, I met refugee children who couldn't smile and couldn't play. They were too shocked by all the violence they had seen. Most came from villages in the area near Duekoue in Ivory Coast, the town where hundreds of people are said to have been killed. Some told me that armed men came to their villages and attacked them. They saw neighbours killed by gunfire, just metres away from them. Those hiding in the bushes were hunted down and killed. Escaping to Liberia was a long and horrific journey for many. They had to run from gunfire, they saw dead bodies along the route and they were forced to wade through rivers. Children also had to experience this. Some arrived in Liberia, having not eaten anything for days. Others survived only on wild bananas. It's mostly women and children crossing the border from Ivory Coast. I saw only a few men. I don't know what happened to the men and boys. Some young people told me their brothers and fathers were fighting for one of the sides in the conflict in Ivory Coast. But no one seems sure of what is happening back in their home country.

3.39pm: Most of the injured have gunshot wounds, Xavier Simon, Médecins Sans Frontières's head of mission in Abijan reports.

"It is just too dangerous. We are not able to cross the bridges to get access to the hospital," he says in an Audioboo interview.

MSF is treating between 30 and 40 people a day, and most are civilians, he said.

They are mainly victims of stray bullets.. this is an emergency, the humanitarian needs are huge. In some areas of city there is a shortage of water, in all parts of the city people are starting to miss food. And for security possible it is not possible to move. There is a shortage of drugs and medical supplies in all the hospitals." Our main goal at the moment is to leave the office and start to give supplies to the hospitals. What we need is authorisation to move safely. It has not improved. We heard a lot of gunshot in our area this morning... The humanitarian needs are huge and we cannot access the population so it is really becoming difficult.



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4.05pm: Some commenters have questioned the role of the UN. The UN news centre yesterday put out a story setting out the reason for UN military action as ordered by the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.

In the past few days, forces loyal to Mr Gbagbo have intensified and escalated their use of heavy weapons such as mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns against the civilian population in Abidjan, the country's commercial capital. These forces have also targeted the headquarters of the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) at Sebroko Hotel with heavy-calibre sniper fire, as well as mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Four peacekeepers have been wounded in these attacks... Consequently, Mr. Ban instructed the 8,000-strong UNOCI to take "necessary measures" to prevent the use of heavy weapons against civilians, with the support of French forces and in line with previous Security Council resolutions. "Let me emphasize that UNOCI is not a party to the conflict," Mr Ban stated. "In line with its Security Council mandate, the mission has taken this action in self defence and to protect civilians."

4.12pm: We are about to enter a new phase of uncertainty in Ivory Coast, predicts Phil Clarke lecturer in international politics at London School of Oriental and African Studies.

Ouattara will inherit a heavily destablised situation. Abidjan and environs are still overrun by Gbagbo's heavily-armed forces. Ouattara also faces a divided population, a large proportion of which don't see him as a legitimate president. Also it is unclear how Ouattara will control his own forces... they are a separate rebel movement who opportunistically have jumped on board with Ouattara. Can Ouattara distance himself from those international actors [the French and UN] and be seen as the president of the country in his own right? It is going to be difficult, he has always been seen as a darling of the French. It is going to be a very uncertain period for long time, I feel. Ouattara has not had day to day command of those [rebel] forces. But Ouattara he will have to answer as why he could not rein his forces in much more heavily. Ouattara is having to buy military control by siding with some very problematic characters.

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4.25pm: It looks like Gbagbo has been abandoned by all except for a handful of supporters and relatives as he negotiates his surrender. This from AP.

"One might think that we are getting to the end of the crisis," Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the UN mission to Ivory Coast said by phone. "We spoke to his close aides, some had already defected, some are ready to stop fighting. He is alone now, he is in his bunker with a handful of supporters and family members. So is he going to last or not? I don't know."

AP says Ouattara has urged forces loyal to him to take Gbagbo alive.

4.44pm: The French foreign minister, Alain Juppé, has been briefing French MPs. He said France has been acting strictly in conformity with UN resolutions, that fighting has come to a stop and that the end is in sight. President Barack Obama has also called on Gbagbo to step down immediately.

4.58pm: Oxfam has just launched a £10m appeal for Ivory Coast. It said thousands of people are reported to be making their way to the border area after the latest battles and violence against civilians. There are already more than 100,000 refugees who have fled to remote border villages in Liberia where Oxfam has set up water and sanitation facilities. The group is sending a team of experts this week to evaluate how to respond to the crisis.

5.08pm: AP has this line from Juppé's briefing to French MPs.

Juppé told French legislators he had spoken to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and they agree that "the departure of Gbagbo be preceded by the publication of a document with his signature in which he renounces power."

5.32pm: The Guardian's Africa correspondent, David Smith, has delved into the UN's troubled record on the continent.

The United Nations attack on Ivory Coast's presidential palace and military barracks marks a new chapter in the organisation's often chequered history in Africa. Most notorious was its impotence during the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which 800,000 people died. The UN security council failed to reinforce the small peacekeeping force in the east African country.

6.00pm: Here's an evening summary.

• Ivory Coast's defeated president is in a bunker at his home with his family, negotiating terms of surrender, according to officials. The French foreign minister, Alain Juppé, said he had spoken to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and they agree that Gbagbo sign a document in which he renounces power. Barack Obama has called on Gbagbo to step down immediately.

• Fighting has stopped in Abidjan after forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, widely recognised as the winner of last year's election, seized the presidential residence where Gbagbo has taken refuge. Ouattara's forces were backed by UN and French helicopters.

• A number of humanitarian organisations have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis in Ivory Coast.

6.43pm: This is Ben Quinn taking over from Mark. The UN special envoy in Ivory Coast, Young-jin Choi, has told CNN International that combat are over and that the terms of Gbago's surrender are being finalized.

@IshaSesayCNN tweets:

UN special envoy to #Ivory Coast telling CNN the pressing issue is how to now restore law and order to the country.

6.48pm: Some more eyewitness details from Abidjan back up reports that fighting is over and control of the city has firmly shifted.

Four French tanks and several armoured personnel vehicles crossed bridges formerly held by forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan on Tuesday, according to a Reuters correspondent.

The bridges link the northern administrative and financial district of the city to the south where the airport and French army base is located.

The tanks and armoured personnel carriers were flying the French flag with a Red Cross vehicle behind them flying a white flag.

6.52pm: The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, urged Alassane Ouattara in a telephone call earlier today to form a national unity government as soon as possible, according to the French foreign minister, Alain Juppe said.

"I can testify...to a conversation between the president of the republic and Mr. Ouattara this morning in which Nicolas Sarkozy [left] asked Ouattara to quickly take the initiative by calling for reconciliation, pardon and the constitution of a national union," according to Reuters.

Juppe said he believed Ouattara, recognised by the international community as the winner of November's presidential election, was a democrat and keen to achieve the peaceful reconciliation of the West African country, the world's largest cocoa producer, which was split by a 2002-2003 civil war.

Asked whether Laurent Gbagbo should be allowed to remain in Ivory Coast if he resigned from office, Juppe replied: "That is up to the Ivorian authorities to decide."

"We have asked (the United Nations force) UNOCI to ensure his physical safety and that of his family," Juppe added.

6.58pm: Breaking news: Gbagbo has surrendered and asked for UN protection, according to UN internal documents seen by Reuters.

7.14pm: According to the UN document seen by Reuters: "President Gbagbo has also surrendered and has asked UNOCI's protection."

While we're waiting for further confirmation of that, here is some vivid reporting of the situation on the ground in Abidjan from Mark John of Reuters and David Smith, the Guardian's Africa correspondent:

A lull in fighting on the motorway leading to the centre of Abidjan, one-time "Paris of Africa", meant the air was filled with birdsong - but also the acrid stench of death. Further down the road, a burned-out armoured vehicle belonging to Gbagbo's army straddled the road and the open gutter next to it, smoke still wafting out from its insides. A civilian was hiding between two corpses lying flat out in the middle of the road. The bodies were those of pro-Gbagbo soldiers blown out of their pick-up truck mounted with a machinegun. Close by, an army tank was in flames, its own light ammunition popping away like firecrackers inside it. It was not clear how the vehicles came unstuck. But earlier, UN and French forces confirmed they would use their mandate to protect civilians as grounds to take out Gbagbo's heavy weapons. At the filling station nearby, troops wearing the insignia of the northern fighters who have declared allegiance to Ouattara took turns at the pumps. It was like any motorway service station except that the queues were of troop carriers and trucks with rocket launchers, and credit cards were neither needed nor accepted. Groups of civilians emerged from surrounding neighbourhoods with plastic canisters, desperate to find water and food before a midday curfew imposed by Ouattara's camp. In the district of Dogbe, several dozen people struck lucky as they come across a water pipe hit by a bullet, spraying its contents across the road. "We haven't had water for two days, there is nothing to eat," said Moussa, 19, walking away with a wheelbarrow filled with water canisters. He said three people were killed in his neighbourhood during fighting overnight, but a lack of bare necessities was pushing people out of their homes onto the streets. "Of course we are afraid," he said. "But we are also thirsty."

7.22pm: Suggestions that Laurent Gbagbo has surrendered seem a little premature now. A UN official has told Reuters now that he hasn't surrendered but has expressed a willingness to do so and wants UN protection. Negotiations are ongoing.

7.32pm: The past deeds of the apparent victors in Ivory Coast's conflict look likely to come under the spotlight of investigators at The Hague, it has emerged.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says he is analyzing information on last week's massacre in the Ivory Coast and wants to open a formal investigation, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo (left) says he wants to "intervene" because "crimes against humanity affect not just people in one country like Ivory Coast, (they) affect humanity."

The charity Caritas said over the weekend that more than 1,000 people were killed over three days last week in the western town of Duekoue in an area controlled by forces fighting to install Alassane Ouattara as president.

Moreno-Ocampo said today that it was not yet clear who was responsible for the massacre.

7.39pm: Laurent Gbagbo has been insisting on French television that he won Ivory Coast's presidential election.

In one way, it's a bullish position somewhat at odds with earlier reports that he has surrendered. However, could it simply be that he has decided to do so but is intent on going out with some bluster?

7.50pm: Those Gagno comments about having won the presidential election were made in an interview with the French station, La Chaine Info.

Throughout the interview, he maintained that he was the legitimately-elected president of Ivory Coast, and that he would ultimately like to talk to Alassane Ouattara as one equal to another, the BBC reports.

7.57pm: Reporting for the Guardian from Abidjan, Selay Kouassi has described the scene during earlier UN and French attacks today:



UN and French helicopters began firing rockets on barracks in Abidjan on Monday afternoon as tensions escalated between pro-Ouattara and pro-Gbagbo forces. I experienced a terrifying night. I have no other words to describe the scene of the bombing. It looked like a Hollywood thriller. I heard a loud noise and, before I could realise it was rockets launched from helicopters, the sky was covered with a dark smoke and I saw fireballs coming from the sky. I could hear heavy artillery from my flat and the explosions were loud enough to make everything shake in my place. The Amondji family lives near the Akouedo military camp, on the outskirts of Abidjan, that was bombed by UN and French forces on Monday night. "I can't believe we're still alive," Edgard Amondji said. "Everything happened so quickly. I couldn't flee the area with my family. The sound was so loud and so terrible. The bombing lasted all night." Miriam Konare, another eyewitness, said: "As,the rockets fell on the military base, I ran in my house and hide under my bed. The bomb blast blew out my window glass, but I was lucky. Not far from my compound, a rocket went through the roof of a mansion, killed one and injured three."

8.07pm: More details of Gbagbo's interview with the French channel LCI have come in from the Associated Press, which reports:

Ivory Coast's strongman leader Laurent Gbagbo holed up in a bunker inside the presidential residence Tuesday, defiantly maintaining he won the election four months ago even as troops backing the internationally recognized winner encircled the home. Gbagbo's comments by telephone to France's LCI television came as French officials and a diplomat said he was negotiating his departure terms after French and UN forces launched a military offensive Monday. France's foreign minister said Gbagbo would be required to relinquish power in writing after a decade as president, and must formally recognize Ouattara, the internationally backed winner of the November election that plunged the West African nation into chaos. But Gbagbo showed no intention of leaving, declaring in his interview with French television, that Ouattara "did not win the elections" even though he was declared the victor by the U.N., African Union, United States, former colonial power France and other world leaders. "I won the election and I am not negotiating my departure," Gbagbo said by telephone. The French channel said the interview was conducted by phone from his residence at 1730 GMT, and lasted about 20 minutes.

9.39pm: The UN mission in Ivory Coast has received telephone calls from pro-Gbagbo forces stating that their soldiers have been instructed to stop fighting and hand in their weapons to the UN, according to the latest bulletin from the UN.

It added that the UN operation in the country (UNOCI) said the calls came from General Philippe Mangou, the chief-of-staff of the Defence and Security Forces, General Thiape Kassarate Edouard, the commander of the National Gendarmerie and General Bruno Dogbo Blé, the commander of the Republican Guard.

10.12pm: Here is a summary of recent developments:

• Ivory Coast's defeated president has said his armed forces are negotiating a ceasefire after coming under attack by French forces, but he denied that he was ready to surrender.

In an interview with French television from the bunker where he is holed up, Laurent Gbagbo insisted he won November's presidential election.

The French foreign minister, Alain Juppé, said he had spoken to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and they agree that Gbagbo sign a document in which he renounces power.

• Fighting has stopped in Abidjan after forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, widely recognised as the winner of last year's election, surrounded the presidential residence where Gbagbo has taken refuge. Ouattara's forces were backed by UN and French helicopters.

• A number of humanitarian organisations have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis in Ivory Coast.

Médecins Sans Frontières issued an urgent appeal on Monday night for all warring factions to allow people to reach medical care.

• The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has said he is examining information on last week'sm alleged massacre in the Ivory Coast and wants to open a formal investigation.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo says he wants to "intervene" because "crimes against humanity affect not just people in one country like Ivory Coast, (they) affect humanity."

We are closing down this blog for now, but you can read the Guardian's latest story on the conflict here.