Much news from Cote d'Ivoire

Ouattara shakes hands with Gbagbo's former chief of staff

So it looks like Ouattara is finally IN as the one and only president of Ivory Coast, though the getting there was really ugly--atrocity ugly, International Criminal Court ugly--as "about 1,500 people were killed and a million forced from their homes."

Sahel Blog directed me to Andrew Harding's blog on the BBC website which offers a first-hand ground-level view of events in Abidjan, the main city of Cote d'Ivoire. He reports that "the general mood as far as I can judge it now, is one of widespread relief. Let's see how long that lasts."

The big fear people offer is that there will be reprisal killings. Amnesty International reported "men in military uniforms have been conducting house-to-house searches in neighbourhoods for Gbagbo supporters in places like Yopougon and Koumassi. Amnesty quoted a witness who saw a policeman belonging to Gbagbo's ethnic group being taken from his house on Tuesday morning and shot dead at point blank range." So, yes, this isn't all peaches and cream with a tidy resolution and peace restored.

Please continue to keep the Ivory Coast in your prayers.