Police step in as Zuma’s car is surrounded
Police protect South African President Jacob Zuma as he boards a car to leave after being shouted at by angry supporters of Ivory Coast's internationally-recognized president Alassane Ouattara following a meeting with Ouattara at the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, Ivory Coast Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011. A reduced delegation met with Ouattara Tuesday, after two of the mediators sent to resolve this country's political crisis pulled out citing security threats. (AP Photo/Emanuel Ekra) Police protect South African President Jacob Zuma as he boards a car to leave after being shouted at by angry supporters of Ivory Coast's internationally-recognized president Alassane Ouattara following a meeting with Ouattara at the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, Ivory Coast Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011. A reduced delegation met with Ouattara Tuesday, after two of the mediators sent to resolve this country's political crisis pulled out citing security threats. (AP Photo/Emanuel Ekra)
Sapa and Sapa-dpa
President Jacob Zuma was mobbed in the Ivory Coast by angry supporters of Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognised winner of the west African nation’s disputed presidential election, reports said today.
Chanting “tell the truth, tell the truth”, the protesters surrounded the car Zuma was travelling in yesterday and armed police had to intervene to push them back, eNews and SABC radio news reported.
Zuma is visiting the country as part of African Union (AU) efforts to solve the four-month-long political impasse in the country, where clashes between Ouattara and Laurent Gbagbo supporters have left more than 300 people dead.
South Africa is one of a handful of nations that has not unequivocally endorsed Ouattara and has backed Gbabgo’s call for a recount.
Gbagbo has refused to step down after November’s disputed presidential elections.
African heads of state charged with solving the crisis ended a two-day mission without finding a concrete solution, as deadly clashes between the military and supporters of Ouattara continued.
The AU said today that the presidents of South Africa, Chad, Mauritania and Tanzania had held high-level discussions with all parties involved and would meet to discuss their next move in the coming days.
Burkina Faso’s president, Blaise Compaoré, had earlier pulled out of the mission in anticipation of such a violent welcome or worse.
The Young Patriots group, led by Gbagbo’s feared lieutenant Charles Ble Goude, had threatened to storm the airport in Abidjan and prevent Compaoré, who is seen as pro-Ouattara, from entering the country.
As the mediators repeatedly tried to convince Gbagbo to step down, clashes continued in neighbourhoods of the economic capital Abidjan.
At least three people were reported killed in one pro-Ouattara neighbourhood yesterday, bringing the estimated death toll since clashes broke out on Saturday to more than a dozen.
It had been relatively calm this month as Ouattara’s camp appeared to be waiting for economic and diplomatic pressure to bear fruit, but on Saturday they called for “an Egypt-like revolution”.
Witnesses said security forces opened fire on the protesters who answered the call.
“We are not going to leave the streets until Gbagbo steps down,” said one protester, Ahmadou Sangare, as he sat in an Abidjan health clinic with a friend injured by a bullet.
“We are not going to wait for the results of the AU panel. Gbagbo is not a man to trust.”
November’s presidential election was supposed to help consign to history the negative effects of 2002’s civil war, which split the country into the Muslim north and Christian south.
Instead, the west African nation was plunged into chaos when a Gbagbo ally on the constitutional council overturned electoral commission results declaring Ouattara the winner.
Neither domestic pressure nor a range of international sanctions have shifted the strongman leader, who has seen his country descend into economic chaos as banks shut down and cocoa exports are hit by the crisis.
Ouattara has been attempting to run an alternative government from behind a government blockade at an Abidjan resort hotel protected by UN peacekeepers.