At Least Five Killed in Army Mutiny in Cote d'Ivoire

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, September 20, 2002

At Least Five Killed in Army Mutiny in Cote d'Ivoire

At least five people including an army commander were killed on Thursday in an army mutiny before it was put down later in Cote d'Ivoire.

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At least five people including an army commander were killed on Thursday in an army mutiny before it was put down later in Cote d'Ivoire.

Defense Minister Moise Lida Kouassi said Lieutenant Colonel Dagrou Loula, the army commander of the central Bouake region, was killed by disgruntled soldiers, who demanded their reintegration into the army after the government planned to return them to civilian life.

There was an unrest staged by some soldiers inside a gendarmerie camp in the cocoa-producing country's economic capital Abidjan, a local journalist told Xinhua.

Heavy gunfire erupted at 4 a.m. (0400 GMT) around the gendarmerie camp of Agban in Abidjan and the soldiers at the nearby barracks are moving toward Agban to help the gendarmes.

Besides Abidjan, the central city of Bouake, 400 kilometers north of Abidjan, and the northern town of Korhogo also witnessed sustained heavy gunfire.

Kouassi said the troops loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo have recaptured a national police camp in Abidjan and they are ready to launch an assault on two key strongholds of the mutineers, the gendarmerie school and the Agban military camp.

Gbagbo, who came to power after general elections in October 2000, is currently in Rome on an official visit to Italy.

The government said all strategic points in the city are secured by its troops.

Lida Kouassi claimed that thought the government currently regarded the outbreak of heavy gunfire an attempted mutiny, many indications show that "we are facing a coup attempt."

The former French colony had its reputation as a haven of relative political and economic stability but was rocked by a coupin 1999 when General Robert Guei ousted former president Henri Konan Bedie.

Earlier this month, Guei, who stepped down after he was defeated by the incumbent president in the 2000 elections, announced his withdrawal from the cabinet and the government of national unity formed by Gbagbo.

Cote d'Ivoire is the world's top cocoa producer with the yield of about 1 million tons every year, accounting for 30 percent of the world's total output.

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