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After Ivory Coast election, fighting comes to a once-calm town

After Ivory Coast election, fighting comes to a once-calm town

ANGE ABOA BEFORE last month's presidential election, M'Batto in central Ivory Coast was a small, peaceful town where ethnic groups intermarried and churches and mosques existed side by side without friction, residents say. Two weeks on and the streets are littered with empty shotgun cartridges, shops have been burned down and at least six people are dead, killed in ethnic clashes that some fear could herald a repeat of Ivory Coast's civil wars in 2002 and 2010-2011. The October 31 election, which was boycotted by the opposition, opened up old wounds around the question of identity in Ivory Coast between…
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Six killed in Ivory Coast town ahead of presidential election

Six killed in Ivory Coast town ahead of presidential election

AT least six people have been killed in a port town in southern Ivory Coast this week, the mayor said on Thursday, as supporters and opponents of President Alassane Ouattara trade blame for rising violence ahead of the October 31 election. The authorities decreed a curfew on Wednesday night in response to the killings in Dabou, which Mayor Jean-Claude Niangne said were carried out by men armed with assault rifles and machetes. Violence has broken out sporadically since August when Ouattara announced his candidacy for a third term, a move his opponents say violates the constitution. In all, more than…
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