BOUAK: Heavy gunfire rang out on Monday in Abidjan and Bouake, Ivory Coast’s two biggest cities, as a four-day mutiny by disgruntled soldiers demanding bonuses spread countrywide.

Banks, offices and department stores closed their doors in the heart of the economic capital, Abidjan, as gunfire erupted in San Pedro, the second biggest port in the world’s top cocoa-producing nation.

Border posts closed, snarling road traffic to Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, while the west African nation’s second biggest city, Bouake, was under the control of mutinous soldiers.

The mutiny was the latest in a series of armed protests which have gripped the country since January, with troops angered by an unresolved dispute over wages and demanding the government of President Alassane Ouattara pay up.

“This is not a coup. We want our bonuses. The president signed a paper saying he agreed with our bonuses. When he pays up, we’ll go home,” said a spokesman for troops at Bouake barracks, the centre of the latest four-day protest.

“We’ll fight to the end. We won’t lay down arms,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity from the city where the protest movement began earlier this year. “8,500 of us brought Ouattara to power, we don’t want him to leave but he’s got to keep his word. It’s that simple,” he added as a group of soldiers, some wearing masks, let off a rattle of gunfire.

Heavily-armed rebel troops controlled exits and entrances to Bouake, where residents appeared to be largely staying indoors.

Ouattara took office in 2011 after months of deadly election violence in which more than 8,000 rebels supported him against troops backing ex-head-of-state Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to concede defeat at the ballot box.

Many of the rebels subsequently joined the regular army, which currently numbers some 22,000 troops.

Early on Monday, heavy gunfire was heard at two military camps in Akouedo in the east of the economic capital, Abidjan, which together form the country’s largest military barracks, a resident living nearby said.

Under a deal negotiated with the government in January following the initial protest, the ex-rebels were to be paid bonuses of 12 million CFA francs (18,000 euros) each.

They were given a partial payment of five million francs with the remainder to be paid starting this month, according to sources among the protesting soldiers. But the government has struggled to pay the promised money.

Bouake, which was at the epicentre of the January mutiny, served as the rebel headquarters following a failed coup in 2002 which split Ivory Coast in half and led to years of unrest.

The former star French colony has since been slowly regaining its credentials as a West African powerhouse and a haven of peace and prosperity. But falling cocoa prices have severely crimped the government’s finances.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2017