Ghana extradites Ivory Coast Gbagbo ally

Ivory Coast's former youth minister and ally of former President Laurent Gbagbo, Charles Ble Goude, has been extradited from Ghana, officials say.

Mr Ble Goude denies leading pro-Gbagbo militias who attacked foreigners and northerners during the unrest which followed disputed elections in 2010.

He has been in hiding since April 2011, when Mr Gbagbo was arrested.

The former president is now awaiting trial at The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity.

Some 3,000 people lost their lives in the four-month crisis after Mr Gbagbo refused to accept defeat.

Several Gbagbo allies have gone into exile in Ghana and they first reported that Mr Ble Goude had been arrested on Thursday.

This was confirmed by Ghana's national security co-ordinator Larry Gbevlo-Lartey.

He told the BBC that Mr Ble Goude had been sent to Ivory Coast on Friday, following an official request.

"There's a warrant for his arrest and we have been looking for him for some time now," he earlier told the Reuters news agency.

His Netherlands-based lawyer, Nick Kaufman, on Thursday told AP news agency he had been in contact with the Ghanaian authorities seeking legal grounds for the arrest.

Mr Kaufman said he had also asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to indicate whether it had issued a warrant for Mr Ble Goude.

Last year, Mr Ble Goude told the BBC that, as head of the Young Patriots group, he had only organised rallies and meetings and never run a militia.

"I am not chief of militia - I've never bought weapons, we went to the streets against those who had weapons, we were bare-handed," he said.

He said he was ready to go the ICC in The Hague to clear his name if that is what it took.

Mr Ble Goude was first put under UN sanctions in 2006, accused of inciting attacks against UN personnel.

During the unrest, people from northern Ivory Coast were seen as supporters of Mr Gbagbo's rival, President Alassane Ouattara.