A top rebel commander was shot dead outside a nightclub in northern Cote d’Ivoire on Sunday, the rebels’ military chief said.
It was not known who carried out the killing of Staff Sgt. Adama Coulibaly in Korhogo, or how many gunmen were involved. But five of the commander’s bodyguards were detained as suspects, rebel chief of staff Col. Soumaila Bakoyoko said.
The commander — known by his nom-de-guerre, ”Adams” — controlled half of Korhogo, Côte d’Ivoire’s third largest city.
He had gotten into a dispute with the bodyguards on Saturday night while he was with them at the nightclub, Bakoyoko said.
”There must have been a disagreement between them. He left the nightclub and was killed,” Bakoyoko said, giving no other details.
Adams was believed to be in a dispute with another commander in Korhogo over who should be the ultimate political leader of the northern-based rebel movement.
Political observers in Korhogo say Adams supported Ibrahim Coulibaly, a former government army sergeant who played a leading role in a 1999 coup that plunged Côte d’Ivoire into lasting turmoil.
Ibrahim Coulibaly is now living in France, under investigation by authorities there in connection with an alleged plot to kill Gbagbo last year.
Earlier this week, rebel spokesmen accused Ibrahim Coulibaly of setting up a dissident rebel force in neighboring Mali and pressing Ivorian rebels to rise up against rebel leader Soro Guillaume.
Bakoyoko said the killing of Adams ”was not linked to any division.”
Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest cocoa producer, was for decades the envy of neighboring states, whose citizens flocked to the former French colony to establish farms and find other employment.
Tensions ignited by the 1999 coup exploded in civil war after a fresh uprising in September 2002.
Although the war was officially declared over in July, the country remains split between northern rebels and southern loyalist forces.
France has sent 4 000 troops to enforce a ceasefire together with 1 300 West African soldiers, and is pushing for thousands of UN peacekeepers to be sent in. – Sapa-AP