Abidjan — Just a year on from Ivory Coast's Christmas Eve coup, many Ivorians fear the turmoil and confrontation of the past 12 months may be far from over.

A roller-coaster year, punctuated by army mutinies and turbulent civilian rule elections and marred by ethnic bloodletting has left the world's top cocoa producer socially divided, diplomatically isolated and economically foundering.

President Laurent Gbagbo says former army ruler Robert Guei - nicknamed Father Christmas after he took power last December 24 - is recruiting mercenaries from neighbouring Liberia.

Boka Yapi, head of Guei's infamous Red Brigade guard, is holed up somewhere with a group of heavily armed troops. According to Defence Minister Moise Lida Kouassi, who knows where Boka is, any raid to capture him may endanger civilians.

Little wonder many Ivorians are feeling insecure.

"We are scared - we have no idea what is going to happen next," a businessman in the main town Abidjan said.

Firecrackers banned

Interior Minister Emile Boga Doudou even banned firecrackers over the New Year period to spare the nerves of worried Ivorians who might mistake them for yet another round of gunfire.

A mutiny by disgruntled soldiers on December 23 1999 snowballed the next day into a coup, ousting President Henri Konan Bedie.

Yet despite months of army rule, Lida Kouassi told state television recently that there had been little improvement in conditions for most of the country's soldiers, some of whom were still defying orders to return to barracks.

Prime Minister Affi N'Guessan launched an appeal for help.

"Anyone with some cement, a little paint, a screwdriver - we ask all Ivorians and businesses to help us to help the army so we will have camps worthy of Ivory Coast," Affi said during a visit to Akouedo barracks, where the mutiny began.

Divisions deepen

An ongoing political and social crisis over whether former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara could stand as president has left deep ethnic scars on what was once seen as a haven of stability in turbulent west Africa.

Opponents say Ouattara, whose Rally of the Republicans (RDR) is popular among northern Muslims, is a national of neighbouring Burkina Faso and so ineligible to be Ivorian head of state.

The Supreme Court barred him from an October presidential poll in which veteran socialist opposition leader Gbagbo beat Guei. The army ruler tried to hang on to power but was forced out by mass protests by Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI).

Ouattara's supporters took to the streets demanding a rerun with him as a candidate, prompting an ethnic bloodbath in which security forces were accused of siding with FPI supporters against RDR sympathisers and northern Muslims in general.

More than 170 people were killed in the post-election violence, including 57 young men of northern origin whose bodies were found in a forest clearing north of Abidjan. All had been shot.

Full of hate

At least two dozen people were killed in further violence ahead of the December 10 parliamentary election, which the RDR boycotted after Ouattara was again excluded by the Supreme Court. His supporters staged protests and chased government officials from some northern towns amid calls for secession.

Over 800 people, many from the north or Ivory Coast's huge immigrant population, were taken to military and police camps where Amnesty International said some were beaten or raped.

"There is no justice - I'm full of hate," said one woman from Abidjan's populous Abobo suburb who said she had seen police kill her cousin and rape two girls at a protest.

The reports of human rights abuses and Ouattara's exclusion led to criticism from former colonial power France and other donors.