Police protest

Protesting policemen fired gunshots late Tuesday and early Wednesday, and set up roadblocks in some Abidjan neighbourhoods to express their dissatisfaction with differences in salary increases awarded by the government to Cote d'Ivoire's security forces.

Sources told IRIN the protest was a "movement of discontent" started by a few non-commissioned officers who do not understand a new salary breakdown. However, it is difficult to tell how widely it has been followed.

In a televised address on Tuesday, Interior Minister Emile Boga Doudou called on the protesters to return to their barracks and stop any act which could disrupt the peace. Once calm returned, the government would meet representatives of the protesters to clarify the situation, he said.

However, despite his call, and a similar communique issued by the police authorities, gunfire blamed on the protesters could be heard up until 6.00 am on Wednesday.

At the root of the problem is a new salary scale that went into effect this month. A "noisy minority" of non-commissioned officers, as the ministry described the protesters, are unhappy at the fact that the new salaries do not reflect what they say the government had promised. They also complain that their salaries are lower than those of NCOs in other security forces such as the gendarmerie or the military.

The issue was to have been clarified at an information meeting on Monday between Boga Doudou and the police, but the meeting did not take place.