In a roadside village south of Bouake the following day, a group of low-ranking soldiers sat down with the officers commanding the column. Toure, the chief of staff, announced an operation to “re-establish order” and a column of elite troops was deployed towards Bouake, heart of the mutiny. In Abidjan, mutineers overran the army headquarters and defence ministry. The next morning, gunfire was heard in cities and towns across the country. “We never spoke about dropping the demand for money,” said one of the mutiny leaders, who asked not be identified for fear of reprisals. There was only one hitch: no one had told the mutineers. Named as Sergeant Fofana, he apologised to Ouattara, who was seated nearby, and said the troops had dropped their remaining demands for payments. On May 11, state TV broadcast a statement by a visibly nervous, beret-clad soldier identified as the mutineers’ spokesman. This month, it seemed to have had found one. Since February, according to several diplomatic sources, the government had been seeking a way out of the promise. It promised another 7 million CFA francs apiece in monthly instalments - at a cost of around $100 million - but a drop in the price of its main export cocoa provoked a budget crunch. The unrest spread across the country and a panicked government paid 5 million CFA francs ($8,500) to each of them to end it. In January, 8,400 former rebels mutinied, demanding bonuses for having helped Ouattara to power. Ouattara has still had difficulty asserting his authority over the army, which was cobbled together in an uneasy merger of the northern New Forces rebels who supported him and the professional troops who had fought against him. “It’s really a knife-edge moment,” said Edward George, Head of Group Research at pan-African lender Ecobank. A new election is due in 2020, and those who study the country say there is a growing risk it could unravel again. Investors duly poured in money and have so far tended to shrug off unrest - including a similar army revolt in 2014 and an al Qaeda attack on a beach resort last year.īut behind the remarkably fast recovery, there is still a threat of more violence. When Ouattara’s backers supported by French troops finally arrested Gbagbo in 2011, the country emerged from the conflict swiftly, becoming Africa’s fastest growing economy. Ivory Coast, a former French colony known for decades as one of the most stable states in West Africa, is still recovering from a brief civil war fought after Ouattara won a disputed election in 2010 but incumbent Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down. “What does that tell you? There’s no control over the military.” “(General) Sekou Toure was giving orders and no one was listening,” a regional security official told Reuters, referring to the military chief of staff. And the army, which still outgunned the rebels, was unwilling to follow orders to put the mutiny down. The previously undisclosed phone call suggests powerful people were willing to help the mutineers. The incident exposed the deep dysfunction and lawlessness now jeopardising Ivory Coast’s recovery from a decade of turmoil and civil war. The column U-turned and headed back to Abidjan, and for a second time this year, mutineers had brought Ouattara’s government to its knees. Swiftly, President Alassane Ouattara’s forces sent in to crush the mutiny began falling apart, according to one Special Forces officer who was part of it. Freshly armed, the mutineers were able to hold their ground.
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