Johannesburg — The authorities in Cote dIvoire imposed a curfew on Thursday night, after a day of heavy fighting during an army mutiny and reported coup attempt in which the Interior Minister and a former military ruler were killed.
State television showed pictures of the body of General Robert Guei, the one-time military leader, who the government accused of being behind Thursdays rebellion.
The government said 750 disgruntled soldiers, recruited by Guei after he seized power in a 1999 coup detat, were responsible for the uprising. These troops were scheduled to be retired from the army but objected to the decision, saying they were not ready to be demobilised.
The authorities announced that Guei was killed in a shoot-out. The Defence Minister, Moise Lida Kouassi, said "General Guei, the main instigator, was killed this morning. The situation is under control across the country. The situation has been pacified."
But late evening, there were reports of renewed automatic gunfire in central Abidjan, the commercial and economic capital of Cote dIvoire.
Reports from outside Abidjan said the situation remained volatile in the second city, Bouake, 400km to the north, where the mutineers are said to be in control. The Sports Minister and his wife were reported to have been taken hostage by the rebel soldiers in Bouake, where the local army commander was killed. Further north in Korhogo, renegade troops are also reported to have seized the city.
The Defence Minister said that the night curfew would run from 6pm to 8 in the morning, local time, until next Tuesday.
Thursdays violent and bloody clashes took place in the absence of the Ivorian leader, President Laurent Gbagbo, who is on an official visit to Italy.
A spokesman said Gbagbo was planning to cut short his trip to Rome after a planned audience with the Pope early on Friday. Gbagbo is reported to have deplored the killing of his Interior Minister and close associate, Maitre Emile Boga Doudou, the first high-profile government casualty in the clashes.
The international airport in Abidjan is closed and telephone communications with Cote dIvoire have been disrupted all day, after fighting and heavy gunfire broke out before dawn.
The former colonial power, France has maintained a lasting influence on Ivorian affairs and currently has a 500-strong military contingent stationed in Abidjan. But Gbagbos government has not confirmed whether it might call on Paris to assist in quelling the mutiny.
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The French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, said they were watching the situation in Cote dIvoire "very closely", and that "France will take all steps required to ensure our nationals are protected."
Quoting military sources, the French News Agency (AFP) reported that at least 80 loyalist soldiers were killed on Thursday, with another 150 injured and put the figure of mutineers killed in the clashes at 25.
AFP later reported that the Defence Minister said government forces would launch a counter-attack against the mutineers on Friday morning, to push them back from Bouake. "We are gathering our forces together in Yamoussoukro (the administrative capital) and will go on the offensive from tomorrow morning," the minister is quoted as saying.
A staff correspondent writes:Meanwhile, in Washington,DC, on Thursday, the Ivorian Ambassador to the United States, Pascal Kokora, speaking at a luncheon in honour of Madame Ottro Zirignon Touré Sarata, a senior member of President Gbagbo's team who is currently visiting the US, noted rumours that Interior Minister Emile Boga Doudou was assassinated by "a commando unit from a neighbouring country to the north".
Kokoro added that Thursday's events might be linked to a major heist at the end of August against the West African central bank, BCEAO in Abidjan. It is suggested that the mutineers who attacked the Agban Gendarmerie camp were attempting to free Sia Popo Prosper, a key suspect in the case who was extradited from Burkina Faso earlier this week.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Ambassador Robert Perry who attended the luncheon said he was "shocked and saddened" by events in Cote d'Ivoire and called on President Gbagbo to continue along the path of dialogue with all political leaders in order to achieve national reconciliation.
