In Ivory Coast, violence rekindles the “psychosis of a fratricidal confrontation”
With less than three months to go until the Ivorian presidential election, the climate remains tense. As the old demons of post-election crises resurface, the West African press is calling on both the government and the opposition to calm down and engage in fair political competition.
“Around midnight [on the night of Friday 1 to Saturday 2 August], a group of individuals armed with machetes and clubs sowed terror in several neighborhoods of the country’s largest commune [Yopougon, a working-class commune in the district of Abidjan],” writes the Abidjan media outlet L’Infodrome . A bus was set on fire and a police vehicle “violently attacked.”
"This act of violence comes at a time when security is already tense in several areas of Abidjan," he continued. The Minister of the Interior, General Vagondo Diomandé, said it was primarily aimed at "creating widespread psychosis" in the run-up to the presidential election, according to the pro-government newspaper Fraternité Matin .
In an appearance on national television on August 3, he also denied allegations of “arbitrary arrests” of eleven individuals, praising the professionalism of Ivorian law enforcement.
At a press conference the same day, the African Peoples' Party-Côte d'Ivoire (PPA-CI) of former President Laurent Gbagbo, prevented by the courts from participating in the presidential election on October 25, denounced the kidnapping of several of its activists , taken "to secret locations" after this night of rape.
Courrier International
