12th May, 2017
Mutinying soldiers left their barracks and blocked streets in several towns and cities across Ivory Coast on Friday, including the commercial capital, firing volleys of gunshots into the air as their protests over a pay dispute gathered momentum.
The uprising began overnight in Bouake, the second largest city, before spreading quickly. The soldiers, most of them ex-rebel fighters who helped bring President Alassane Ouattara to power, erected improvised barricades around the national military headquarters and sealed off part of downtown Abidjan.
The country’s National Security Council held an emergency meeting, a defence ministry source said.
Reuters reports that the soldiers were revolting over delayed bonus payments, promised by the government after a nationwide mutiny in January but which it has struggled to pay after a collapse in the price of Cocoa, Ivory Coast’s main export, hurt national revenues.
On Thursday, a spokesman for 8,400 soldiers who took part in the January rebellion said they would forego demands for more money after meeting with authorities in Abidjan.
“That’s not what they were meant to say,” said one leader of the January mutiny who had remained in Bouake and asked not to be named, explaining the soldiers’ actions.
He said the mutineers would seal off access to Bouake in the evening if the authorities failed to respond.