Women again march in defiance of Ivory Coast ruler
Troops attack neighborhood after march, leaving 4 people dead.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — In an act of bold defiance, thousands of women converged Tuesday on the bloodstained pavement where seven of their sisters fell last week, and later the army backing this country's rogue leader again opened fire and killed four more civilians.
The brutal killings last week occurred when soldiers supporting strongman Laurent Gbagbo opened fire on a crowd of female demonstrators who were armed with nothing more than tree branches, symbolizing peace.
The attack on civilians has further galvanized the international community against Gbagbo, who has refused to yield power three months after being declared the loser of his country's presidential election.
On Tuesday, several hundred women marched in Treichville, a downtown neighborhood. Hours after the march on International Women's Day was over, the army burst into Treichville and opened fire, killing at least four civilians. Reporters saw the bodies of three men and one woman on the floor of a clinic.
Mariam Bamba, 32, picked up a limp branch Tuesday next to one of the bloodstains on pavement. "This leaf is all they were carrying," she said of the victims.
More than 400 people have been killed in the three months since the disputed election, according to the United Nations. Opposition leader Alassane Ouattara is the presidential election's internationally recognized leader, but incumbent Gbagbo refuses to concede.
Protests against Gbagbo's rule, often ending in bloodshed, have been multiplying here. Gunfire sounds across Abidjan every day, and youths with machetes and pistols staff impromptu checkpoints.
Additional material from The New York Times.
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