Updates dying toll ABIDJAN, Oct 22 (Reuters) - A minimum of
Updates dying toll
ABIDJAN, Oct 22 (Reuters) – A minimum of 10 individuals have been killed in a port city in southern Ivory Coast this week, the mayor mentioned on Thursday, as supporters and opponents of President Alassane Ouattara commerce blame for rising violence forward of the Oct. 31 election.
The authorities decreed a curfew on Wednesday night time in response to the killings in Dabou, which Mayor Jean-Claude Niangne mentioned have been carried out by males armed with assault rifles and machetes.
He mentioned the dying toll was 10 however that it might rise as authorities search the realm.
Violence has damaged out sporadically since August, when Ouattara introduced his candidacy for a 3rd time period, a transfer his opponents say violates the structure.
Greater than 20 individuals have died in protests and clashes between rival supporters.
The occasions have stoked fears a few greater slide into violence. A disputed election a decade in the past led to a civil struggle that killed 3,000 individuals.
Niangne, a member of Ouattara’s ruling celebration, mentioned younger males affiliated with the president’s opponents took management of elements of Dabou earlier within the week, killing six individuals and wounding 40, earlier than being pushed out on Wednesday by the police.
He mentioned weapons belonging to a nationwide lawmaker and former mayor of the city, who’s an ally of exiled opposition chief Guillaume Soro, have been utilized by the assailants.
The lawmaker, Ben Souk Sess, who’s in exile in Mali, denied this and blamed the violence on youth gangs working for Niangne.
Ouattara’s two principal challengers within the election, former President Henri Konan Bedie and Pascal Affi N’Guessan, known as on their supporters final week to boycott the electoral course of and stop it from going forward.
They accuse the ruling celebration of manipulating the electoral course of to make sure Ouattara’s victory. Ouattara denies this and says he has the suitable to face for re-election beneath a brand new structure authorised in 2016.
(Reporting by Ange Aboa; Writing by Aaron Ross; Enhancing by Hugh Lawson and David Evans)
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