Ivory Coast: "The war is over"

The war in Côte d'Ivoire is over. That was the declaration of President Laurent Gbagbo and rebel leader turned Prime Minister Guillaume Soro as Gbagbo set foot in former rebel territory for the first time since 2002.

"The war is over," Gbagbo told some 25,000 people in the Bouake Municipal Stadium on 30 July, calling on the crowd to repeat the phrase. "May all Ivorians stand up and shout it with me. The war is over." Soro said Gbagbo's presence in Bouake, the former-rebel stronghold, "seals the reunification of the country."

Many people cried and some fainted as the masses in the stadium stood, joined hands and prayed for peace in Côte d'Ivoire.