An estimated 200 dead and thousands who have exited the country in anticipation of violence.
Indeed this has been a costly election.
All nations in the region should seek to focus upon building up the people's confidence in the INSTITUTIONS by making them more transparent.
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — A top ally of Ivory Coast's internationally recognized leader said Friday that the country is already in a "civil war situation," and urged the incumbent leader who refuses to cede power to step down by a midnight deadline.
The United Nations has said that the volatile West African nation once divided in two faces a real risk of return to civil war, but Prime Minister Guillaume Soro told reporters that the country is already at this point — "indeed in a civil war situation."
"This is what's at stake: Either we assist in the installation of democracy in Ivory Coast or we stand by indifferent and allow democracy to be assassinated," Soro said at a news conference hours before incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo was expected to make an address on state television.
Soro cited more than 200 deaths and said 1,000 others had been wounded by gunfire. Human rights groups have accused Gbagbo's security forces of abducting and killing political opponents, though Gbagbo allies deny the allegations and say some victims were security forces killed by protesters. The U.N. has confirmed at least 173 deaths.
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