Cote d'Ivoire's Imposes Curfew after Army Mutiny

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

Cote d'Ivoire's Imposes Curfew after Army Mutiny

The government of Cote d'Ivoire Thursday started imposing a dusk-to-dawn curfew nationwide after heavy fighting erupted in the early hours in main cities in the west African country.

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The government of Cote d'Ivoire Thursday started imposing a dusk-to-dawn curfew nationwide after heavy fighting erupted in the early hours in main cities in the west African country.

Defense Minister Moise Lida Kouassi announced on state television that the curfew came into force immediately from 6:00 p.m. (1800 GMT) to 8:00 a.m. (0800 GMT) everyday until Sept. 24 as part of necessary measures to restore order and peace across the country.

Lida Kouassi said in a government statement that the army has brought the situation under control with the exception of some small pockets of resistance in the central city of Bouake and the northern town of Korhogo.

He told state television that all the armed forces are mobilized to fight the remaining mutinous soldiers after the troops retook two key strongholds of the mutineers, the gendarmerie school and the Agban military camp.

But local journalists told Xinhua that a group of mutinous reinforcements has left Bouake, which is reportedly under their control, toward Abidjan and has already passed Yamoussoukro, the cocoa-producing country's administrative capital.

Former military ruler General Robert Guei and Interior MinisterEmile Boga Doudou were confirmed killed during the bloody clashes

Meanwhile, at least 80 people including an army commander of Bouake region were killed and 150 wounded in the mutiny in the three major towns in the cocoa-producing country.

President Laurent Gbagbo, who is currently on an official visitto Italy, has decided to cut short his tour after hearing of the incident.

A spokesman for the president had spoken with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin by phone and may ask France for military help.

Prime Minister Affi N'Guessan has gone on state radio to blame the shooting on about 750 soldiers protesting plans to demobilize them later this year.

The government Thursday accused Guei of being behind the mutiny, which cropped up before dawn with sustained exchanges of heavy machine-gun fire and mortar barrages in several areas of Abidjan, the commercial center of the country.

Abidjan is often described as the Paris of west Africa, boosting an affluent middle class and well-developed infrastructure.

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.

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

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 cocoa output.

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