IVORY COAST: Four killed as suppporters of President Laurent Gbagbo attack U.N. headquarters in Abidjan.

Record ID: 182592

  • Title: IVORY COAST: Four killed as suppporters of President Laurent Gbagbo attack U.N. headquarters in Abidjan.
  • Date: 19th January 2006
  • Summary: WIDE OF BUILDING HOUSING ONUCI (UN MISSION IN IVORY COAST) HEADQUARTERS.
  • Embargoed: 3rd February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA78AE18IIJ3VFXIY4J1S88SV09
  • Story Text: Four pro-government protesters died on Wednesday (January 18) in western Ivory Coast when U.N. peacekeepers opened fire to repel an attack on their base in a third day of anti-U.N. riots.
    The deaths were the first reported in violent protests this week by supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo who are demanding that U.N. and French peacekeepers withdraw from the West African country, which was divided in two by a 2002 civil war.
    Gbagbo supporters on Wednesday took over state television facilities and called on other Gbagbo supporters to take to the streets.
    In the country's commercial capital, Abidjan, protesters marched on U.N. headquarters and tried to smash their way in.
    Government supporters began the protests this week to oppose a call by foreign mediators to end the mandate of a transitional national parliament, which is dominated by Gbagbo loyalists.
    U.N. bases and vehicles have been attacked by hundreds of protesters.
    The four protesters were killed when demonstrators stormed a base used by Bangladeshi U.N. peacekeepers at Guiglo in the west of the world's top cocoa producer, which is split between a government-controlled south and a rebel-held north.
    An Ivorian military commander, who also confirmed the deaths but asked not to be named, said U.N. peacekeepers had since evacuated from the western towns of Guiglo and Duekoue.
    A French army spokesman said the four protesters who were killed had tried to take weapons and had climbed on to armoured vehicles. He said 12 more demonstrators had been injured.
    Nigerian President and African Union chairman Olusegun Obasanjo, who has helped mediate Ivory Coast's peace process, arrived in the country late on Wednesday to meet with the president.
    In a blow to the U.N.-backed efforts, Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front party (FPI) said on Tuesday it was pulling out of the peace process.
    The anti-U.N. protests in Abidjan and other cities erupted after an international working group charged with overseeing the peace process recommended on Sunday that the Ivorian parliament, whose mandate expired last month, should not be reconvened.
    Gbagbo loyalists, who dominate the parliament, accused international mediators and the U.N. of overstepping their authority and trying to override sovereign institutions.
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