Four arrested after attacks at Ivory Coast border
Source: Reuters
ABIDJAN, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's security forces have arrested four people after attacks on two checkpoints near the border with Ghana in which two military police and a customs officer were killed, the army said in a statement. Army spokesman Colonel Hilaire Babri Gohourou said two of the attackers had also been killed in Friday's violence, raising the death toll to five. One of the four arrested was an air force deserter and they were being detained at a police station on the border pending investigations, he said in the statement. The group, which was armed with 12-bore shotguns and knives, simultaneously attacked the border posts of the military police, police and customs officers at around 0200 GMT on Friday and stole a number of Kalashnikov rifles, he said. The West African state has been divided into a rebel-held north and government-controlled south since a brief 2002-2003 civil war that began after an attempted coup. A string of peace deals have foundered amid recurring political squabbles. Gohourou did not specify whether the security forces believed the attack to be an act of banditry or a politically motivated assault. The local press said on Saturday up to 13 people, mostly members of the security forces, had been injured in the attack.
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