Heavy gunfire in Ivory Coast as military tries to end mutiny
IVORY COAST - Heavy gunfire has been heard in Ivory Coast’s two largest cities as the military attempts to quash a four-day army mutiny over bonus payments. Loyalist troops began advancing towards Bouaké, the epicentre of the revolt, on Sunday; sporadic gunfire was heard overnight there and at military camps in the capital, Abidjan, witnesses said. Shooting in both cities intensified before dawn. “There was heavy shooting at the northern entrance to the city and in the city centre. It’s calmed a bit but we’re still hearing gunfire,” said one Bouaké resident. Heavy shooting was also heard in Daloa, a hub for the western cocoa growing regions. Soldiers are revolting over delayed bonus payments, promised by the government after a mutiny in January but not fully paid after a collapse in the price of cocoa, Ivory Coast’s main export. A spokesman for the mutiny denied that clashes had occurred and said renegade soldiers were firing in the air to dissuade any military advance on the city. On Sunday, the group’s leaders rejected the army’s demand that they disarm and surrender. “We can no longer turn back,” said their spokesman Sergeant Seydou Kone. “We don’t know what will happen to us, so we just want our money so we can start a new life. But we can’t give up now that we’ve reached this point.“Ivory Coast has been generally seen as a success story after emerging from a 2002-2011 political crisis as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. But society remains deeply divided and a wave of mutinies earlier this year exposed the lack of unity in a military assembled from former rebel and loyalist combatants. The 8,400 mutineers, most of them former rebels who said they were promised bonuses for fighting to bring President Alassane Ouattara to power, received 5m CFA francs each to end the January uprising. (Theguardian.com)