Briefly

IVORY COAST

Ouattara says Gbagbo will face charges

ABIDJAN | Ivory Coast’s president said Wednesday that the country’s arrested strongman will face charges “on a national level and an international level” as the president attempts to restore order after a bloody four-month standoff.

Alassane Ouattara said strongman Laurent Gbagbo has been moved out of the Golf Hotel, where he was taken after his capture on Monday. He said Mr. Gbagbo will be kept in a villa and that his rights as a former head of state will be respected.

“Gbagbo is in a residence under surveillance somewhere in Ivory Coast,” Mr. Ouattara told reporters at the Golf Hotel.

The justice minister is preparing for possible prosecution of Mr. Gbagbo, the president said, but gave no details.

“There will be charges [against Mr. Gbagbo] on a national level and an international level,” he said. “Reconciliation cannot happen without justice.”

Mr. Ouattara repeated his call against violence and said all minors being held should be released immediately.

“We need to secure the country, notably Abidjan,” he said. “It is important for the country to emerge from this crisis on top.”

Mr. Ouattara said he will settle into the presidential palace in the coming days but that a swearing-in ceremony is not a priority and will take place at a later date.

He said his priority is to provide security for Ivorians, to establish law and order and to get the country working. Many Ivorians went without food and water as fighting roiled the nation last week.

SWAZILAND

Teachers call off protests after some jailed

MANZINI | The president of the Swaziland teachers union said the teachers called off pro-democracy protests Wednesday after police beat, threatened and fired water cannons and tear gas at them on Tuesday.

Sibongile Mazibuko, president of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers, said Wednesday that police were locking teachers into vans and jailing them for treason if they caught them standing in groups of more than three. She said protesting is not safe for teachers.

Ms. Mazibuko, released after being detained all day Tuesday, spoke to the Associated Press from a place of hiding.

On Tuesday, police chased more than 500 teachers out of a private center where they had gathered to protest. Heavy security in the country’s commercial capital ensured that planned pro-democracy protests did not happen.

SUDAN

UN: 800 killed in southern Sudan

JUBA | The U.N. said Wednesday that more than 800 people have been killed and 94,000 displaced because of violence in southern Sudan this year. A top official warned of a humanitarian crisis if the violence continues.

The violence followed an early January referendum that saw the region vote to secede from the north.

Southern Sudan is slated to become the world’s newest country in July. But since the euphoria of that vote, the region has seen heavy violence.

Lise Grande, the top U.N. humanitarian official in southern Sudan, said there have been 151 incidents of violence and that the number of internally displaced people has doubled in the past month.

Most of the clashes have been tribal violence. But militant groups also have battled the government, and Ms. Grande said rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army killed four people in recent days.

NIGERIA

Opposition parties mull combining forces

LAGOS | Nigeria’s two main opposition parties are trying to hammer out an eleventh-hour alliance to unseat President Goodluck Jonathan in elections in three days’ time, opposition sources said Wednesday.

Officials from the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) held hours of talks late Tuesday and again on Wednesday on the possibility of fielding a single candidate against Mr. Jonathan, the sources said.

One option under discussion is for former anti-corruption chief Nuhu Ribadu, the ACN candidate, to step down and support ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari of the CPC as the main opposition rival to Mr. Jonathan, the sources said.

The ACN then could field its vice-presidential candidate, Fola Adeola, a respected businessman, to run alongside him.

Another option would be for Mr. Ribadu to remain in the race but formalize an alliance with Mr. Buhari in the event of a runoff.

“We have some options that we are pursuing. We just held a very crucial meeting this morning and have dispatched some people for more meetings,” Sunny Ugochukwu, national campaign manager for the ACN, told Reuters.

“The party leaders have certain things to clean up.”

From wire dispatches and staff reports