ABIDJAN: Gunmen shot dead at least eight people in an attack on supporters of Ivory Coast presidential candidate Alassane Ouattara amid tensions over delayed vote results, witnesses told AFP on Thursday.
Violence erupted as Ouattara and President Laurent Gbagbo were locked in a stand-off over results of the hotly contested presidential vote, following pre-election violence that left at least another seven people dead. Witnesses in the western Yopougon district of Abidjan, a stronghold of support for Gbagbo, said armed men attacked overnight at the office, a local base for Ouattara’s RDR party.
“People inside started yelling and the armed men started shooting,” one witness said, without indicating the identity of the attackers. AFP photographers saw blood, gun cartridges and bullet holes at the RDR base and several people with bullet wounds being treated at a nearby hospital. A hospital source said about 15 people were injured in the attack. A police source and an RDR official confirmed to AFP that at least eight people were killed.
The RDR official said about 50 people were on the premises at the time, waiting for election results. The landmark presidential election stood in limbo after the deadline for results passed with no winner despite mounting international pressure for a resolution. World powers pressured Ivorian leaders to resolve the stand-off over Sunday’s hotly-contested vote, marred by the violence and mutual allegations of cheating.
Election authorities said they were still working on results as midnight passed, the cut-off point for them to announce first results of the race. With the legal deadline gone it was not clear whether the Constitutional Council, the body authorised to confirm election results, would take charge of announcing the outcome.
The council is headed by a close ally of Gbagbo, Paul Yao N’Dre. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for the provisional results to be published “without further delay” and the UN Security Council ordered special consultations on the west African nation for Thursday.
The high-stakes election aimed to end a decade of instability in Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer. Ouattara’s camp insisted results were ready and should be announced, accusing Gbagbo of trying to cling to power. The president’s backers accused the opposition of fraud and urged that polls in several regions be scrapped.
The United Nations said the election was sound overall. Troops were deployed around the main city of Abidjan and Gbagbo extended a curfew, in place since the eve of the election, until Sunday, but this did not prevent the deadly violence overnight.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called on electoral authorities to announce a result and, along with the African Union, European Union and the United States, urged Ivorians to accept the outcome peacefully. The election is intended to end years of crisis in the west African country, which was split in two when rebels of the New Forces took control of the north after a foiled coup against Gbagbo in 2002.
Eight killed in election violence in Ivory Coast
