Two dead after clashes between police and youth militia

A gunfight between police and a pro-government militia group in Abidjan's volatile suburb of Adjame killed two people and injured many others, eyewitnesses and officials said. And residents said they feared more trouble to come following the clash on Thursday since the Patriotic Grouping for Peace (GPP) had emerged from the fight with its authority intact. The GPP has provided military training to several hundred hard-line supporters of Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo since it requisitioned a school in Adjame last year and turned it into a military training camp. Residents in the neighbourhood have complained about extortion and bullying by the GPP for several months and in January local resentment spilled over into skirmishes between GPP members and bus and taxi drivers supported by local traders. On that occasion the two sides merely threw stones at each other before the police intervened. But things took a deadly turn on Thursday when a quarrel developed between the GPP and cadets from a nearby police training school who have long complained of similar harassment. By the end of the 15-minute gunfight, the corpse of one militiaman lay sprawled across the entrance to the GPP headquarters. An official from Adjame's mayor office said a local trader had also been killed by a stray bullet and several people had been injured. One police cadet told an IRIN correspondent at the scene that the trouble had started when one of his colleagues was beaten up by the GPP. "We are going to chase them out," he said before the gun battle erupted. "The GPP provoked us, they've gone too far this time." Residents in the suburb, which houses one of the city's biggest markets, said they too were fed up with the arrogant bullying behaviour of the GPP.

Police cadets march on the GPP camp

"It's become a habit for them. Each time law enforcement officers pass through the area, the GPP attack them," said one resident from the safety of his doorstep. Some of his neighbours rushed outside to cheer on the police. "Get rid of these devils for us," one man cried. Most of the people living in Adjame are second generation immigrants from other West African countries and people from the north of Cote d'Ivoire. They are widely suspected by Gbagbo's supporters of sympathising with the rebel movement which has occupied the northern half of the country since civil war broke out in September 2002. Suburb an opposition stronghold The suburb is also a stronghold of Alassane Ouattara, the former prime minister who was banned from standing against Gbagbo in the 2000 presidential elections on the grounds that his father was born in Burkina Faso. The rebel movement wants Ouattara to be allowed to run in fresh polls due in October and the mayor of Adjame, Youssouf Sylla, is a senior official of his Rally of the Republicans (RDR) opposition party. On Thursday, as the trainee policemen tried to force their way into the GPP camp, they came under heavy fire from automatic weapons. Residents ran into their houses for cover as the policemen began to return fire. Fifteen minutes later the gunfire died down. One policeman, taking cover by the side of a house, took advantage of the lull to call his wife on his mobile phone. "Go and get the kids and get home. The militants are behaving like idiots again," he whispered breathlessly. Diplomats say the leaders of the GPP take their orders from the presidential palace. Colonel Philippe Mangou, the head of the Ivorian armed forces arrived on the scene after the clashes on Thursday and went into the GPP camp to talk to the youths. After his departure, GPP leader Zeguen Toure, said his group, who have occupied the school since August 2004, were staying put. "We're not leaving here. We are not militants, we are patriots defending our country," he told reporters. "Our place is not out in the bush, hiding. It's here, supporting the forces loyal to the president." "This attack was a plot organised against the GPP," he went on. "We suspect the rebels are here in the government zone stirring up trouble."