One of the darkest pages of the post-electoral violence episode has just been written in the history book of Ivory Coast, with the bombing of heavy weaponry and military bases under the control of pro-Gbagbo forces in Abidjan, on Monday April 4th.

Fighting has already died down in the economic capital Abidjan on Tuesday amid rumours Gbagbo was negotiating to surrender. But Ivorians will remember the hectic bombing that happened during the night of April 4th.

The Amondji family lives near the Akouédo military camp, on the outskirts of Abidjan. The memory of that terrific night comes to father Amondji gradually.

“I can’t believe we’re still alive. Everything happened so quickly. I couldn’t flee the area with my family. The sound was so loud and so terrible. The bombing lasted the whole night”, declared Edgard Amondji, over the phone.

UN and French helicopters began firing rockets on barracks in Abidjan on Monday afternoon as tensions escalated between pro-Ouattara and pro-Gbagbo forces.

Another resident of the Akouedo neighborhood where the military base is located said a tank driven by pro-Gbagbo soldiers had started to fire at the UN helicopters in the air.

“Any time they shot, I could see a big fireball in the sky”. The resident, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said “Young supporters of Gbagbo who had been armed with AK-47 assault rifles also shot at the helicopter. But none of the rockets launched by the helicopter targeted them directly”.

The French military force and the UN troops in Ivory Coast said, they used force to “destroy the heavy weapons of Gbagbo” according to the United Nations Security Council resolution 1975, adopted unanimously on March 30, 2011.

Even those who live in Cocody district, but not too close to the bombing sites, spent a terrible evening. “Terrific”, this is the word Marc Koublemon uses to describe the scene. “It was terrific. It looks more like a Hollywood thriller. I heard a loud noise, before I could realize it was rockets launched from helicopters, the sky was covered with a dark smoke and I saw fireballs coming from the sky”.

Many people could hear heavy artillery in Abidjan, and the explosions were loud enough to make everything shake in their homes.

Miriam Konaré, another eyewitness of the bombing tells her story. “As, the rockets fell on the military base, I ran in my house and hide under my bed. The bomb blast blown off my window glass, but I was too lucky. Not far from my compound, a rocket filed through the roof of a house, killing three”, she said by phone.

There is no official information concerning the number of bombing victims. Only, the issue of Gbagbo negotiating to surrender was on everybody’s lips in the Ivorian capital some hours ago. Now that the exit deal with the besieged Ivorian leader has failed, populations are worried about how to get out from the four-month standoff which could drag on for months.