SILVIA ALOISI, Abidjan | Wednesday
IVORY Coast’s ruling junta has arrested several people – including two French nationals – close to presidential hopeful Alassane Ouattara, accusing them of plotting to sow disorder ahead of a presidential election.
A junta official accused the Ouattara camp of recruiting people to ”carry out sabotage to prevent the election from taking place and so that people can say Ivory Coast has descended into a spiral of violence.”
Ouattara’s aides said soldiers had tried to kidnap his wife Dominique and had arrested five of her bodyguards and two drivers. Two of the bodyguards arrested were nationals of former colonial power France.
The junta denied any kidnap attempt and said the soldiers wanted to arrest one member of Dominique Ouattara’s escort. ”Her guards intervened. The situation heated up and this man hid in a building. We didn’t catch him but we will.”
Junta leader General Robert Guei plans to contest the presidential election on October 22, the first in a series of polls to restore civilian rule after the West African country’s first coup last December.
Ouattara’s candidacy has split Ivory Coast along ethnic and religious lines.
His opponents, including Guei, say he is a national of Burkina Faso and therefore ineligible under a new constitution approved by a referendum in July.
Ouattara, a former prime minister who draws his support from the Muslim north, says he fulfils all the eligibility criteria.
The supreme court, headed by one of Guei’s former legal advisers, has the final say and must rule by Saturday.
”If they want to burn it (Ivory Coast), we will burn it together and we’ll all look at the ashes together,” the junta official said. – Reuters