Here's an article on this shooting incident. At least I hope it's about the incident in question! http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11352105%5E1702,00.html
jwm
Abidjan streets teem with rioters
From correspondents in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
November 11, 2004
THOUSANDS of protesters flush with anti-French hatred filled the streets of the main Ivory Coast city Abidjan today, spoiling for a fight to defend President Laurent Gbagbo.
Egged on by national radio, which interrupted "hate" messages with snippets of Ivorian reggae star Alpha Blondy's anthem against the French military, they streamed through the downtown Plateau business district to "protect" the radio station.
Thousands more headed for the upmarket Cocody district, which has been ransacked by four days of looting and vandalism that sent French schools up in smoke and left long-time European residents of the west African former French colony beaten and stripped of all they owned.
Hospital sources said at least seven people were killed in a confrontation yesterday between French troops and the so-called "patriots" outside the luxury Hotel Ivoire in Cocody, just a kilometre from the presidential residence and where French tanks had taken up positions early on Monday.
Their presence around the hotel, which was stripped of its once-grand but now shabby furnishings yesterday, sparked a rumour - fed by state radio - that France was preparing a coup bid against Mr Gbagbo, which French military chief General Henri Poncet moved swiftly to deny.
A senior adviser to Mr Gbagbo told Europe 1 radio that 10 people had died in what he called a French "massacre" of Ivorian citizens.
French Defence Minister Michelle Alliot-Marie insisted that the victims had been caught in the crossfire between the patriots, many of whom were armed, and the Ivorian military that had moved in to defuse tensions between the French troops and the crowd.
Life in Abidjan, once one of Africa's most modern and sophisticated cities but now a battered symbol of the two years of conflict that has split Ivory Coast into two, was slowly returning to normal despite the unease and presence of French and Ivorian tanks in the streets.
Markets and shops around the economic capital were open and buses and shared taxis plied their regular routes, careful to avoid the mounting piles of garbage that have not been collected in days.
The latest chapter in Ivory Coast's turmoil opened today with a series of government air raids on key positions in the rebel-held north, one of which hit a French military camp in the second city Bouake killing nine French troops and a US civilian.
France responded by wiping out virtually the entire Ivorian air force and seizing control of the airport, which sparked a frenzy of violence in Abidjan that has left at least 600 people injured, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
A reported 145 people have died in the week of unrest, including 85 civilians killed in the air strikes on Bouake and Korhogo, though those figures have not been confirmed.
Already some 600 French nationals were flown out of Abidjan today, aboard two of a half-dozen planes evacuating foreign citizens from the crisis-torn country.
Gliding down the lagoon that snakes through the coastal city on a barge escorted by three French military seacraft, worried foreigners gripped their bags tightly as they came ashore near a French military post.
For many, the boat ride from the banks outside the Golf Hotel in the Riviera neighbourhood was to be their last trip anywhere in Ivory Coast, as they were among the panicked Abidjan residents closing the chapter on the last two tumultuous years.
"That is it for me, I have turned the page on my life here," said a 50-something Frenchwoman with a sigh, recalling her excitement when she arrived in Abidjan at the age of 12.
"It's time for me to see other things. I feel hunted here."
jwm
Abidjan streets teem with rioters
From correspondents in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
November 11, 2004
THOUSANDS of protesters flush with anti-French hatred filled the streets of the main Ivory Coast city Abidjan today, spoiling for a fight to defend President Laurent Gbagbo.
Egged on by national radio, which interrupted "hate" messages with snippets of Ivorian reggae star Alpha Blondy's anthem against the French military, they streamed through the downtown Plateau business district to "protect" the radio station.
Thousands more headed for the upmarket Cocody district, which has been ransacked by four days of looting and vandalism that sent French schools up in smoke and left long-time European residents of the west African former French colony beaten and stripped of all they owned.
Hospital sources said at least seven people were killed in a confrontation yesterday between French troops and the so-called "patriots" outside the luxury Hotel Ivoire in Cocody, just a kilometre from the presidential residence and where French tanks had taken up positions early on Monday.
Their presence around the hotel, which was stripped of its once-grand but now shabby furnishings yesterday, sparked a rumour - fed by state radio - that France was preparing a coup bid against Mr Gbagbo, which French military chief General Henri Poncet moved swiftly to deny.
A senior adviser to Mr Gbagbo told Europe 1 radio that 10 people had died in what he called a French "massacre" of Ivorian citizens.
French Defence Minister Michelle Alliot-Marie insisted that the victims had been caught in the crossfire between the patriots, many of whom were armed, and the Ivorian military that had moved in to defuse tensions between the French troops and the crowd.
Life in Abidjan, once one of Africa's most modern and sophisticated cities but now a battered symbol of the two years of conflict that has split Ivory Coast into two, was slowly returning to normal despite the unease and presence of French and Ivorian tanks in the streets.
Markets and shops around the economic capital were open and buses and shared taxis plied their regular routes, careful to avoid the mounting piles of garbage that have not been collected in days.
The latest chapter in Ivory Coast's turmoil opened today with a series of government air raids on key positions in the rebel-held north, one of which hit a French military camp in the second city Bouake killing nine French troops and a US civilian.
France responded by wiping out virtually the entire Ivorian air force and seizing control of the airport, which sparked a frenzy of violence in Abidjan that has left at least 600 people injured, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
A reported 145 people have died in the week of unrest, including 85 civilians killed in the air strikes on Bouake and Korhogo, though those figures have not been confirmed.
Already some 600 French nationals were flown out of Abidjan today, aboard two of a half-dozen planes evacuating foreign citizens from the crisis-torn country.
Gliding down the lagoon that snakes through the coastal city on a barge escorted by three French military seacraft, worried foreigners gripped their bags tightly as they came ashore near a French military post.
For many, the boat ride from the banks outside the Golf Hotel in the Riviera neighbourhood was to be their last trip anywhere in Ivory Coast, as they were among the panicked Abidjan residents closing the chapter on the last two tumultuous years.
"That is it for me, I have turned the page on my life here," said a 50-something Frenchwoman with a sigh, recalling her excitement when she arrived in Abidjan at the age of 12.
"It's time for me to see other things. I feel hunted here."
