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Côte d'Ivoire

Four shot in pro-Ouattara neighbourhood in Côte d’Ivoire

At least two civilians and two policemen were shot dead after gunfire was heard in a tense neighbourhood of the Côte d’Ivoire commercial capital Abidjan.

A man runs down a road that has been blocked off by people who have stopped an UN patrol in the neighbourhood of Abobo in Abidjan
A man runs down a road that has been blocked off by people who have stopped an UN patrol in the neighbourhood of Abobo in Abidjan Reuters
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The bullet-ridden bodies of two men were found lying face-down on the streets of the Abobo neighbourhood, which is home to many supporters of presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara.

"At six when we were getting up, we saw that the police had already come around," one resident who did not wish to be named told RFI. "They went into people's courtyards and stole portable phones and money from people.

"And when they left, they started shooting at people as some came out of their homes to see what was going on. We started fleeing and that's when two people died. It happened almost next to me. Two civilians got shot."

Residents told the wire service AFP that members of incumbent Laurent Gbagbo’s security forces had also been killed, though it was not possible to verify the information. Reuters meanwhile reports that two protesters and three policemen were killed in the Abobo incident.

According to residents, gunfire could be heard all over the neighbourhood.

"There was shooting all over the place for hours," student Ouattara Idrissa, 20, an Abobo resident told Reuters. "We couldn't go out. We hid in our houses and only now are we safe to come out."

Security forces entered Abobo early on Tuesday and went into people's homes saying they were searching for weapons, according to residents.

Meanwhile Gbagbo's Youth Minister Charles Blé Goudé postponed a rally planned for the neighbourhood on Tuesday after the clashes there.

"We have postponed our rally to allow the military operation underway to be satisfactorily completed," Blé Goudé, who heads Gbagbo's Young Patriots, told AFP.

According to UN figures, 200 people were killed in post election violence in Côte d’Ivoire.

Mediation efforts from African leaders have failed to convince Gbagbo to stand down, after a 28 November run-off vote.

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