Awwal 30, 1432 H/March 5, 2011, SPA -- U.N. peacekeepers in Ivory Coast will be reinforced by 2,000 soldiers and have received two combat helicopters to face worsening violence between rival political factions, a U.N. official said. The 8,000-strong United Nations force is trying to keep a stand-off between rival presidential claimants Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara from tipping into a civil war, as clashes between factions loyal to each side grow increasingly violent. Gbagbo's defence minister Alain Dogou repeated calls at a press conference for all U.N. troops to leave and said it would not cooperate with them, accusing them of arming rebels. "They have become a party in Ivory Coast's conflict," he said. Some 800 peacekeepers are stationed around a hotel in Abidjan where Ouattara, widely recognised as the winner of an election last year, has been holed up for three months hoping that economic sanctions will weaken Gbagbo's grip on power. "What we are seeing is clearly an escalation of violence," Reuters quoted Choi Young-jin, a U.N. representative in Abidjan, as telling the Liberation newspaper in an interview published on Saturday.
