An offensive by forces loyal to Ivory Coast's presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara has now reached two towns near the official capital, Yamoussoukro.
Heavy gunfire was heard in the early hours of this morning in the town of Bouafle, midway between the cocoa producing hub of Daloa and Yamoussoukro.
Residents of Tiebisso, 40km north of the capital, also reported fighting.
Forces loyal to Ouattara have launched offensives from the east, west and centre in recent days, and now control key cocoa-producing areas in a southward push to dislodge incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.
Laurent Gbagbo has refused to cede power after a disputed election.
As the fighting has intensified, about 20,000 Ivorians and west Africans migrants have been forced to seek refuge in an overcrowded Catholic mission in the town of Duekoue with little or no access to shelter, food, water and health facilities.
'Since about 6 o'clock this morning, we are hearing gunfire in Bouafle. Machine gun fire and often heavy detonations. It is as if there are clashes,' Alain Zagole, a resident of the town, told Reuters by phone.
On Tuesday the forces loyal to Ouattara advanced to within 200km of the two main port cities, meeting little resistance from forces loyal to Gbagbo.
The deputy chief-of-staff for the Ouattara-backed forces, Issiaka Ouattara, was quoted in the Ivorian newspaper Nord-Sud as saying their objective is to restore democracy and ensure that the choice of the people who elected Ouattara is respected.
Mr Gbagbo's government yesterday called for an immediate ceasefire and the opening of dialogue but warned that the advancing forces could not take Abidjan, the economic capital.
The violent dispute over last November's presidential election that UN-certified results showed Mr Ouattara won, but which Mr Gbagbo refuses to concede, has reignited the civil war it was meant to end.
