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A week in Ivory Coast: mutiny, dismissals, resignations, and uncertainty

Wednesday, 25 January 2017 8:37 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 25 January 2017 8:37 AM ]

Ivorian soldiers from the Republican Guard arrive in Yamoussoukro from Abidjan, January 17, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The political situation in the Ivory Coast is on a knife edge after residents reported heavy gunfire in the country’s second port city, San Pedro.

Two weeks of military uprisings that have tarnished the West African nation’s image as a post-war success story show little signs of being brought under control despite government efforts. President Alassane Ouattara ordered his defense minister and military chiefs to hold urgent talks with members of the security forces about their grievances in a bid to quell the instability but with limited success.

Ivory Coast is no stranger to mutinies, but, after a period of relative calm, will this latest instability lead the country on a path back to more violence? Festering divisions within the military have been exposed as soldiers left their bases in acts of indiscipline that transformed to sporadic violence. Can the president and his government bring things under control and prevent the Ivory Coast from slipping back into her former condition?

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