IVORY COAST: Police in Ivory Coast fired tear gas at several hundred young demonstrators outside the UN mission in Abidjan yesterday as protests broke out across the city against calls by foreign mediators to dissolve parliament.
Some of the roughly 300 youths loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo hurled rocks at the police and a witness told reporters at least one officer was injured. The crowd chanted: "Respect Gbagbo's power!"
Elsewhere in Ivory Coast's economic capital, hundreds more pro-Gbagbo protesters, some brandishing machetes and sticks, burned tyres and blocked roads, forcing shops and schools to close.
UN troops with anti-riot gear guarded their headquarters from behind a closed gate. The clash ended after several minutes but more protesters were still arriving by mid-afternoon.
An international working group charged with overseeing the latest UN peace plan in the divided west African country recommended on Sunday that the parliament's mandate, which expired last month, should not be renewed.
Mr Gbagbo's supporters say the international group has no right to make such a proposal.
Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, has been split into a rebel-held north and government-run south since a civil war in 2002. A string of peace deals have failed to unite the country and presidential elections due last October were postponed. - (Reuters)