Fresh unrest in Ivory Coast despite peace efforts
By Peter Murphy and Ange Aboa
ABIDJAN, Nov 9 (Reuters) - At least five people were killed in a fourth day of mob violence in Ivory Coast on Tuesday and protestors accused French troops of opening fire on them.
Demonstrators said French troops had shot at them from a hotel in an upmarket district of the country's main city Abidjan, while the French military declined immediate comment.
Four people lay dead after the shooting--an Ivorian paramilitary policeman, a headless corpse and two women. Protestors carried a fifth corpse to the residence of President Laurent Gbagdo.
Two other people were on the ground with serious injuries and seven others lay further away, their condition unclear.
The continuing unrest on the ground underscored doubts about the prospects for stabiity despite an upbeat assessment from South African President Thabo Mbeki on a one-day peace mission to the world's biggest cocoa grower.
Demonstrators in Abidjan ransacked the Hotel Ivoire after French troops pulled out and smoke rose into the sky. The hotel was a towering symbol of the post-independence boom the West African state enjoyed thanks largely to its plentiful cocoa.
The unrest, which has paralyzed the vital cocoa industry, began after former colonial power France destroyed most of the country's military aircraft in response to an air raid which killed nine French peacekeepers.
French troops deployed in Abidjan, saying their only aim was to protet French citizens and property, but Ivorian militants accused them of planning to topple Gbagbo.
Despite official appeals for calm, anti-French sentiment was still running high on Tuesday among backers of Gbagbo, who lost control of the north of the country in 2002 to a rebel movement.
Protesters brought the body of a young man with a bullet in his neck to the gates of Gbagbo's home near the Hotel Ivoire.
"This is France, this is France!" they chanted.
|
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
First 