Seven killed, 44 injured in Ivory Coast violence

Inter-community violence in Ivory Coast has claimed seven lives and left 44 injured in recent days, a police source told AFP on Friday.

Fighting erupted between people of the Baoule and Dioula tribes Wednesday at Beoumi, a town in the centre of the country, after an altercation between a taxi driver and a motorbike taxi operator at a taxi rank, said witness Innocent Koffi, a local farmer.

“There were seven deaths and 44 injured,” according to the police source.

Local officials declared a 6.00 pm curfew Thursday, and the situation in Beoumi remained tense on Friday, residents told AFP by telephone.

There is long-standing tension between taxi drivers in the region, most of them Dioula from the north, and of motorbike taxis, who are local Baoule.

Inter-community violence is common in the Ivory Coast, a country with several dozen ethnicities among its 25 million inhabitants. Punch