No halt to protests in Ivory Coast
ABIDJAN, (AFP) – Supporters of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo yesterday ignored his call for an end to violent protests, manning roadblocks, besieging UN headquarters and bringing Abidjan to a standstill for a fourth day.
Militant backers of the president have protested in the west African country’s economic capital since Monday at a recommendation from a UN-mandated working group that the parliament stand down as its term had ended.
About 3,000 demonstrators were besieging the United Nations headquarters in Abidjan which they had tried to storm on Tuesday and Wednesday before being beaten back by Jordanian peacekeepers firing tear gas and warning shots in the air.
“Between 200 and 300 of them are continuing to hassle us, throwing rocks. We have been replying with tear gas,” a UN military source told AFP of those who had stayed throughout the night.
“Mollo mollo (little by little), that wall will end up downed,” one banner read.
Charles Ble Goude’s pro-Gbagbo “Young Patriots” also maintained a sit-in in front of the embassy of France, Ivory Coast’s former colonial ruler, which along with the UN has thousands of peacekeeping troops in the divided country. They demanded the withdrawal of UN and French peacekeeping forces.
In the afternoon, a Gbagbo aide, and number three in the political hierarchy as head of the economic and social council, Laurent Dono Fologo, asked them to pack in their protest, but he angered them instead.
“We don’t want to! We have to go on with the movement!” they chanted in chorus.
The UN resolution extended Gbagbo’s term in office for a year pending elections after the failure to hold polls on time or disarm the rebels holding the north of the country since an abortive coup against Gbagbo in 2002.
It also led to the formation of a transitional cross-party government under Banny tasked with bringing about disarmament, reconciliation and organising new elections.
The protestors, including the pro-Gbagbo governing party in the south, have called the recommendation to dissolve the national assembly, whose five-year term officially expired last month, “an attack on national sovereignty”.
