The mutiny began when renegade soldiers, demanding their bonus payments as promised by the government in January, stormed the military headquarters in Abidjan on Friday.
Ivorian soldiers staged a mutiny on Friday after the government failed to pay them their bonuses.
The mutiny began when renegade soldiers, demanding their bonus payments as promised by the government in January, stormed the military headquarters in Abidjan on Friday. However, loyalist soldiers forced the mutineers to retreat.
Witnesses reported that the rebel soldiers returned to Abidjan by Sunday and fired warning shots. Gunfire was also reported in the cities Daloa and San Pedro.
The rebels also besieged Bouaké, the second-largest city in Cote d’Ivoire after Abidjan, and reportedly wounded six persons.
The mutineers sealed off the main entrance points to Bouaké, stranding over 200 commercial trucks.
According to Reuters, loyalist soldiers were sent to Bouaké, the hub of the rebellion, to quash the mutiny, but were outnumbered by rebel soldiers.
It would be recalled that in January 2017, soldiers staged a mutiny over the government’s failure to pay them their bonuses. The mutineers and government reached a deal to pay the soldiers bonuses of 12 million CFA francs each with an initial payment of 5 million CFA francs.
The government vowed to pay the remainder of the bonuses this month but failed to do so.
Many of the rebelling soldiers took part in the civil wars that ravaged the country in 2002 and 2011 and were supporters of President Alassane Ouattara.
