Presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire: in Dabou, the worrying rise in tensions
Security forces were sent to reinforce Abidjan (illustration image).
ISSOUF SANOGO / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
With the approach of the presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire, the city of Dabou, west of Abidjan, has experienced in the past two days one of the deadliest episodes since the start of the protest against the candidacy of 'Alassane Ouattara has a third term, with violence that has left at least seven dead and dozens injured.
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With our correspondent in Abidjan,
Pierre Pinto
Large gendarmerie reinforcements arrived this Wednesday from Abidjan to try to restore calm in Dabou, the scene of clashes and looting.
Automatic gunfire was even heard.
The city has experienced a worrying rise in tension since the start of the week.
On Monday, barricades were erected and a few clashes were reported.
But a milestone was crossed the next day with the death of at least three people.
Among them, a young man in his twenties killed with a machete in the village of Kpass on the outskirts of Dabou, by individuals who had just looted a farm and continued their destructive equipment.
“
We have a lot of infiltration of young delinquents who have all come out of the smoking rooms.
They attack, they steal, they loot,
”comments the mayor of Dabou, Jean-Claude Yede Niangne.
This Wednesday, young people from surrounding villages stormed Malinke neighborhoods in what looked like retaliatory operations.
At the end of the day, the authorities counted at least four new deaths, for a total of seven dead and dozens of injured in the last 48 hours.
For the prefect of Dabou, unknown elements, for some armed with Kalashnikovs and well trained, came to stir up the conflict.
“
Initially a banal political confrontation between those in power and the opposition turned into a conflict between Dioulas and Adioukrous.
But we are convinced that a well-armed militia wanted to recover from this confrontation,
”says Remi Nzi Kanga.
"
Where are they from?
I could not say it
”, laments the prefect.
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