Bouaké (Ivory Coast) (AFP) – At least one person was killed and about 10 others wounded by gunfire in Ivory Coast on Friday during protests over a hike in electricity rates.
Demonstrators ransacked a number of electricity company agencies, government buildings and a bank in the central city of Bouake, witnesses said.
About 10 injured people were taken to hospital and one succumbed to gunshot wounds, a hospital source said.
An AFP journalist saw the body of a 29-year-old man at the morgue. He had been shot in the stomach during the protest in Bouake.
In the midst of the clashes rioters looted a police station, carrying off several Kalashnikov rifles.
“They are going to regret shooting at us,” said one man.
The protest started with hundreds of people pressed against barricades and shouting “CIE thieves, CIE thieves,” using the acronym for Ivory Coast’s electricity company.
“CIE doesn’t care about us, today we are going to tell them what we think of them,” protester Arouna Toure told AFP. “The bills are too high and nobody is listening to us.”
Authorities tried to disperse the protesters with tear gas, but a crowd then looted and burned a CIE office. Violent clashes subsequently broke out between rioters and security forces, who opened fire on the crowd, witnesses said.
Similar violence flared earlier this week in the administrative capital of Yamoussoukro and the western city of Daloa over the hikes in electricity prices of up to 10 percent.
Following the unrest, the government agreed to allow residents to delay paying their electricity bills until September, but this did not prevent the demonstrations in Bouake.
“The government is responsible for the current social tension and the protests in Yamoussoukro,” said on Tuesday Jean-Baptiste Koffi, the head of a consumers union.
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