A dangerous election looms in Ivory Coast
Geriatric rivals argue over the rules, as fears of another bloody election grow
THE LAST time Ivory Coast had a close election, 3,000 people were killed. So when a policeman in Abidjan, its commercial capital, recently saw men with machetes pouring out of vans, chatting amicably with his police chief and then attacking nearby unarmed protesters while the police looked on, he complained to Amnesty International, a human-rights watchdog. “Their presence was not coincidental,” he said. “This reminds me of the two past crises when militias were sowing terror among the people.”
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Old men spell danger”
Middle East & Africa October 10th 2020
From the October 10th 2020 edition
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