Ivory Coast’s ousted leader Laurent Gbagbo was under house arrest Wednesday as newly-installed President Alassane Ouattara fought to impose his authority amid fresh outbreaks of gunfire on the streets

Ivory Coast's ousted leader Laurent Gbagbo was under house arrest Wednesday as newly-installed President Alassane Ouattara fought to impose his authority amid fresh outbreaks of gunfire on the streets.
  
The new Ivorian government announced that the man who had refused to cede power until being captured on Monday would remain in detention. "Pending the opening of a judicial inquiry, Mr. Laurent Gbagbo and some of his companions have been placed under house arrest," Justice Minister Jeannot Ahoussou-Kouadio said in a statement. The government did not say where Gbagbo was being held, nor who the "companions" were.
  
The Ouattara government has said it is determined that Gbagbo will face justice over the months of fighting that erupted after he refused to admit defeat in a November president election.

Amid the euphoria on Tuesday among his supporters, residents in some parts of the city reported fresh clashes involving heavy weapons fire around the Plateau district which is home to the presidential palace.

Tensions were exacerbated further by news that a former interior minister who was arrested along with Gbagbo, Desire Tagro, died on Tuesday in circumstances that remained unclear, sources said. A Gbagbo supporter said Tagro was shot while in custody at the hotel where the ousted president was taken after his capture.

This comes as US President Barack Obama phoned Ouattara to congratulate him on taking office. The White House said in a statement that Obama had called Ouattara "to congratulate him on assuming his duties as the democratically elected president of Cote d'Ivoire.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed Ouattara's promise to set up a truth and reconciliation commission to look into accusations of massacres and other crimes made against both sides in the conflict. The UN, which has more than 9,000 troops and police in Ivory Coast, will keep up its mission helping to “restore” law and order and Ban offered help coping with a "critical" humanitarian emergency.