ABIDJAN, Sept 19: Ivory Coast’s former military ruler Robert Guei and a top government minister were killed Thursday amid a bloody armed uprising officially termed a coup attempt.

The rebels were quashed in the main city of Abidjan but still reportedly holding the country’s second biggest town, Bouake, in the afternoon.

Defence Minister Moise Lida Kouassi said that Guei’s body was found near a hospital in Abidjan’s upmarket Cocody district following the mutiny which broke out in the small hous of the morning in Abidjan and two other key towns.

He said three sources had confirmed Guei’s death and stressed the news was “100 percent” correct.

General Guei, who staged Ivory Coast’s first coup in December 1999, had earlier been blamed by an aide to President Laurent Gbagbo, currently in Italy on an official visit, for the uprising in the west African country.

Kouassi also said that angry soldiers due to be demobilised in coming months had been encouraged to take action by Guei.

Gbagbo said in Rome, where he was on an official visit due to end Friday, that government forces had gained the upper hand in Abidjan and the situation was now “under control.

“Loyalist forces have taken the upper hand and the situation is under control in Abidjan, while normality is being restored to Bouake”, the main town in the centre of Ivory Coast.—AFP