Ivory Coast on the Brink?

A suburb in the commercial capital of Abidjan, Abobo has declared independence from the country’s disputed president. Tribalism and violence fill the streets: “No one is safe in Abobo. Women were slaughtered in a hail of machine-gun fire at a demonstration. Men have been beaten and burned alive because they were judged to belong to the wrong tribe or nationality. UN peacekeepers have been shot at and western journalists have been roughed up and threatened with lynching. The Guardian’s vehicle was stopped at the makeshift roadblock and its occupants ordered out.”