Shooting heard in Bouaké and Abidjan as revolt by soldiers over delayed bonus payments enters fourth day

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Heavy gunfire has been heard in Ivory Coast’s two largest cities as the military attempts to quash a four-day army mutiny over bonus payments.



Loyalist troops began advancing towards Bouaké, the epicentre of the revolt, on Sunday; sporadic gunfire was heard overnight there and at military camps in the capital, Abidjan, witnesses said. Shooting in both cities intensified before dawn.

“There was heavy shooting at the northern entrance to the city and in the city centre. It’s calmed a bit but we’re still hearing gunfire,” said one Bouaké resident. Heavy shooting was also heard in Daloa, a hub for the western cocoa growing regions, and in Ivory Coast’s second port city, San Pedro.

Soldiers are revolting over delayed bonus payments, promised by the government after a mutiny in January but not fully paid after a collapse in the price of cocoa, Ivory Coast’s main export.

A spokesman for the mutiny denied that clashes had occurred and said renegade soldiers were firing in the air to dissuade any military advance on the city.

On Sunday, the group’s leaders rejected the army’s demand that they disarm and surrender. “We can no longer turn back,” said their spokesman Sergeant Seydou Kone. “We don’t know what will happen to us, so we just want our money so we can start a new life. But we can’t give up now that we’ve reached this point.“

Ivory Coast has been generally seen as a success story after emerging from a 2002-2011 political crisis as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. But society remains deeply divided and a wave of mutinies earlier this year exposed the lack of unity in a military assembled from former rebel and loyalist combatants.

The 8,400 mutineers, most of them former rebels who said they were promised bonuses for fighting to bring President Alassane Ouattara to power, received 5m CFA francs (£6,500) each to end the January uprising.

But the government has struggled to pay remaining bonuses of 7m CFA francs.

An Abidjan resident said mutineers came out of the west African nation’s largest military camp and erected barricades early on Monday, blocking traffic along one of the main thoroughfares in the east of the city.

Several schools near the camp did not open and the Abidjan-based African Development Bank, which employs several thousand people, many of them international staff, told its employees to stay home.

“I’ve been hearing the sound of Kalashnikovs and a heavier weapon. That began at around 5am … It’s intense,” said another Abidjan resident, who lives near the US embassy and presidential residence.

At least eight people were shot by the mutineers in Bouaké and the northern city of Korhogo on Saturday and Sunday as popular opposition against the revolt gathered momentum, sparking protest marches in several cities, including Abidjan.

One man, a demobilised former rebel fighter, died on Sunday.

In San Pedro, witnesses told reporters: “The mutineers are [here]. They are everywhere. There is heavy gunfire. Everyone is closing shop and heading home”.