JOIN USGbagbo's dramatic arrest came after days of heavy fighting during which French and UN helicopters fired rockets at his presidential residence. Forces backing the internationally recognised winner Alassane Ouattara had begun a rapid offensive to oust Gbagbo late last month.
Issard Soumahro, a pro-Ouattara fighter at the scene, told The Associated Press that the ground offensive to seize Gbagbo came after the French launched air-strikes until at least 3 am today.
"We attacked and forced in a part of the bunker. He was there with his wife and his son. He wasn't hurt, but he was tired and his cheek was swollen from where a soldier had slapped him," Soumahro said.
TV footage showed Gbagbo emerging from his bunker in a white sleeveless undershirt, and then donning a colorful print shirt. He was interrogated and brought to the Golf Hotel, where Ouattara has been trying to run his presidency since the November 28 vote.
Officials are now waiting for him to sign a document that formally hands power over to Ouattara, Soumahro said.
"The nightmare is over for the people of Ivory Coast," Ivory Coast's UN ambassador said.
Youssoufou Bamba, who was appointed UN ambassador by Ouattara, said Gbagbo will face justice. He predicted that fighting that has wracked this former French colony will stop as soon as pro-Gbagbo forces learn of his capture.
It will be very difficult for Ivory Coast to mount a domestic court to try Gbagbo, said Richard Downie, an Africa expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that it would "probably be a lightning rod for more unrest."
"(Ouattara) didn't want to come to power this way, though the barrel of a gun," Downie said. "He was elected fairly and freely. But this is the situation he was dealt. It's going to be incredibly difficult for him to bring the country together."
Ouattara's private television station broadcast images of a serene Gbagbo sitting on his bed. It was not immediately clear if the images were taken immediately after his capture. Ouattara's ambassador to France, Ali Coulibaly, told France-Info radio: "It's a victory ... considering all the evil that Laurent Gbagbo inflicted on Ivory Coast."
He emphasised that the man in power for a decade would be "treated with humanity."