ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara Friday ordered soldiers from all sides of the country's conflict to return to their barracks in an effort to restore stability to the world's top cocoa grower.
Ouattara won a post-election power struggle when his rival, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, who had refused to cede power, was arrested last week. But the main city of Abidjan remains awash with fighters and violence simmers.
"As commander-in-chief of the army, I order you to pull all combat units to their barracks and bases of origin, whether that is in the north or the south," Ouattara told senior generals from all sides in a meeting Friday.
"Combat units must return to their barracks and law and order will be maintained by the police and gendarmes," he added.
After months of failed diplomacy, pro-Ouattara forces, dominated by rebels who have controlled the north since a 2002-3 war, swept into Abidjan at the end of March but were bogged down in days of heavy fighting with pro-Gbagbo loyalists.
A breakthrough was eventually made after French and U.N. helicopter gunships destroyed Gbagbo's heavy weapons, allowing Ouattara's forces to enter Gbagbo's compound and arrest him.
But Ouattara is struggling to hold together his fractured alliance as well as neutralise lingering pro-Gbagbo militia still holding out on the Abidjan neighbourhood of Yopougon, where there was heavy fighting this week.
(Reporting by Ange Aboa; writing by David Lewis; Editing by Alison Williams)