Ouattara forces control two more towns in push south

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Forces loyal to Ivory Coast’s Alassane Ouattara took control of two more key towns as they pushed south towards a major port in the west and got within 200 km of the main city of Abidjan, witnesses said.

Two residents in Issia, the first town seized on the main road south to San Pedro, which ships half of Ivory Coast’s cocoa beans, said pro-Ouattara forces took control after forces loyal to incumbent Laurent Gbagbo abandoned the town, Reuters reports.

Residents in Abengourou, some 200 km (124 miles) northeast of Abidjan, said that Gbagbo loyalists had also abandoned the town and Ouattara’s forces, known as the FRCI, had marched straight through it and continued south.