Bouak - Four people were killed and many hurt when police clashed on Tuesday with former rebels barricading the road into Bouake, Ivory Coast's second biggest city, in the spillover from a corrosive army mutiny over pay.
The protesters said security forces opened fire to disperse them, but the government denied responsibility.
"Security forces deployed conventional measures to maintain order," Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko said in a statement.
"But some of the armed demonstrators pulled the pin out of a grenade that exploded among them," he added.
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Three bloodied bodies were brought into the main Bouake hospital, an AFP reporter said, shortly after police stepped in to evict protesters who had obstructed the northbound road into Bouake on Monday.
A fourth person later died, he was among around 15 people seriously injured in the clashes, hospital sources said.
The highway into Bouake is the main road for the world's top cocoa producer, linking the economic capital Abidjan in the south to northern Ivory Coast and to its commercially vital neighbour Burkina Faso.
"This is serious," said a rebel spokesperson, Amadou Ouattara. "I never would've imagined shooting at unarmed people who are demonstrating."
The violence comes days after a crippling four-day mutiny by former rebels who joined the army in 2011, as peace returned after a decade-long war that had split the country in two.
The 8 400 mutineers last week halted their protest and returned to barracks after reaching an agreement with the government in a pay dispute.
'Sound of grenades'
The rebels protesting in Bouake are among 6 000 nationwide who did not join the army, but who are now demanding identical compensation from the government for the war.
During the 2002-2011 conflict, Bouake was used as rebel headquarters, with a force estimated at tens of thousands.
Security forces were out in significant numbers on Tuesday morning to clear the highway into Bouake, which during last week's mutiny saw some 500 trucks backed up during several days.
Traffic had begun to return to normal this weekend, and police remained stationed on the highway after dispersing the protesters.
The police assault took place in the morning. "Police started hurling tear gas," said Diakite Aboudou, a spokesperson for the former rebels.
"We could hear the sound of grenades," he added. "Then we heard automatic gunfire and the sound of Kalashnikovs. The dead were killed by gunfire."
Solidarity Minister Mariatou Kone saying by telephone that she was calling for dialogue and "for calm because violence won't settle anything."
The protesters are demanding the government pay them 18 million CFA francs (27 000 euros) each as compensation for the time they spent fighting.
The mutinous soldiers are to get bonuses of 12 million CFA francs (18 000 euros) each.
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Cape Town
Search for missing girl, 3, turns to dump site
Johannesburg - The African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL) and the EFF have sent its heartfelt condolences to the family, relatives and friends of Karabo Mokoena.
Mokoena was allegedly killed and burnt by her ex-boyfriend and was reported missing on April 28.
She was enrolled as a part-time student.
Police discovered her body on April 29 and started with their investigation. A 27-year-old man has been arrested for the murder.
“The barbaric brutal killing of women and all forms of gender-based violence must be treated as high priority crime in South Africa,” ANCWL Secretary General Meokgo Matuba said.
Matuba said all perpetrators of such atrocities must be denied bail and a maximum sentence must be imposed if found guilty.
The ANCWL appealed to the State to object bail when the alleged killer was expected to appear in court on Friday.
Also read:
#RIPKarabo: Police arrest man for killing 'missing' girlfriend
The EFF said there was no other way to explain this tragedy than to point to the dominant and violent patriarchal order in the country.
“Men have grown accustomed to the violent abuse and murder of women. Only a culture that hates women would treat them with so much disdain and violence,” Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said.
Ndlozi said the dominant and violent patriarchal order sustains itself with violent sexual harassment with rape at its centre.
“It perceives women as possessions and tools for men's sexual pleasure. It is founded on hatred of women, masculine inferiority complex and self-hate.”
He said it was a sad day for young women in the country.
“Fear of men increases, because from total strangers they meet on the streets and taxi ranks, to the loved ones who share intimate spaces with them; there is no safety.”
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