Abidjan (Fides Service) - "In the last few days in Abidjan tension has risen" a local source in the capital of Ivory Coast told Fides Service. "After the agreement between President Gbagbo and the rebels signed last week in Paris, groups of President Gbagbo's supporters took to the streets to protest against excessive concessions granted to the rebels. Blaming France for the exaggerated concessions the protesters attacked French symbols in the city: the French embassy, the headquarters French troops, a shopping centre and private homes. They also set fire to the consulate of Burkina Faso, a country accused of backing the rebels. On the military front now all is calm there is no fighting and the cease-fire holds. In Bouake, the main city in the north under rebel control, the agreement was welcomed with celebrations".
The agreement foresees that President Gbagbo will stay in power at the end of his mandate; a government of national unity open to all parities will be created and entrusted with the task of preparing elections the date of which has still to be set. On 25 January Seydou Diarra was appointed prime minister of the national unity government. One of the points of the agreement contested by supporters of Gbagbo and the army is that both the rebels and the army have been ordered to disarm. "The army is not too happy" the local source tells Fides Service "they feel humiliated to be treated like rebels" LM (Fides Service 27/1/2003)