Chaos in Ivory Coast as Protesters Resort To Looting and Vandalism

Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo

In the Ivory Coast city of Bouake, hundreds of protesters marched through the city center, setting fire to cars, smashing up shops and looting a local government administrative office. This comes amidst the backdrop of President Laurent Gbagbo dissolving the government and the electoral commission one week after a row over voter registration. A group of protesters broke into the regional governor’s office and stole equipments as they chant that they don’t want the President anymore. “Gbagbo must quit now! He cannot stay in power,” they said. Ivorian security forces dispersed protesters in the south western town of Gagnoa, using tear gas.  Five protesters were killed a day before after police fired into the crowd of demonstrators.

The clashes on Friday were the first to result in bloodshed in a week of demonstrations, heightening tension as public anger grows at years of delays to the election timetable. It was confirmed by the military on national television that five people had been killed and nine wounded in Friday’s protest. The march on Sunday went on more peacefully and had largely fizzled out by the afternoon. The President in a statement in the state-owned Fraternite Matin newspaper, said that he had temporarily reinstated Defence Minister Michel N’Guessan Amani, Interior Minister Désiré Tagro and Finance Minister Charles Diby to handle government business while the prime minister forms a new government. The Prime Minister, Guillaume Soro, who is a former rebel during the civil war that divided the country in two, was due to form a government on Saturday, but an aide said it would not be announced until Monday.

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© 2010, Ahmed M Kamara. All rights reserved.

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Tags:  Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, Prime Minister Guillaume Soro

By Ahmed M Kamara