Shops reopened and cars passed through Abidjan’s previously barricades streets on Thursday following a near-complete shutdown of Côte d’Ivoire’s commercial capital by hard-line supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo.
The Young Patriot militants, some of whom had promised to continue with Wednesday’s ”operation dead city” until the prime minister responded to their complaints about an identification programme they say could lead to unfair elections, said they had made their point with one day of protest.
”Now everyone knows what will happen if the republic is not respected,” said Eugene Djue, one of the leaders of the action. ”There is no need for us to continue our protests … [we] have given a clear signal and it will be heard.”
The demonstrators objected to the handling of an identification programme designed to register millions of undocumented people living in the West African nation. The Young Patriots say rebels who have controlled the north of the country since 2002 will use the program to gain Ivorian nationality fraudulently for foreigners born in Côte d’Ivoire.
They say these could then go on to vote for Gbagbo’s rivals in presidential elections set to occur by the end of October.
On Wednesday, they blocked cars from entering the city and rallied around the prime minister’s office, saying they wouldn’t leave until their demands were addressed. But, by the evening, barricades were already being taken down and Thursday appeared to be a normal work day.
Government spokesperson Yves Doumbia said the administration planned to continue with the identification process on Thursday.
Gbagbo’s followers want the rebels to disarm during the identification campaign, a process Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny — who was appointed as a neutral mediator — has said is well under way. But the protesters argue that disarmament has barely started, if at all.
The Young Patriots attacked peacekeepers and officials from the United Nations operation in Côte d’Ivoire in January, accusing them of meddling in Ivorian politics. — Sapa-AP