Six unarmed female were killed by forces loyal to ivory coast sturbbon leader

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Soldiers backing Ivory Coast’s defiant leader shot and killed six women yesterday as they protested his refusal to leave power. The attack shocked a nation where women’s marches have long been used as a last resort against an unrestrained army.
Women had decided this week to organize women-only marches in the nation’s commercial capital, assuming soldiers would be too ashamed to open fire.
But at least six of the thousands of women who were demonstrating yesterday were killed on the spot, said Mohamed Dosso, an assistant to the mayor of Abobo who said he saw the bodies.
The three-month-old conflict in Ivory Coast has entered a new level of intensity. With each passing day, the regime of Laurent Gbagbo is proving it is willing to go to any length to stay in office after an election that international observers say he lost.
Sirah Drane, 41, who helped organize the march, said she was holding the megaphone and preparing to address the large crowd that had gathered at a traffic circle in Abobo.
“That’s when we saw the tanks,’’ she said. “There were thousands of women. And we said to ourselves, ‘They won’t shoot at women.’ . . . I heard a boom. They started spraying us. . . . I tried to run and fell down. The others trampled me. Opening fire on unarmed women? It’s inconceivable.’’
The attack prompted an immediate rebuke from the United States, which like most governments has urged Gbagbo to step down and has recognized his rival as the country’s legitimate president.
Nearly 400 people have been killed in the country, including 32 in the last 24 hours, according to UN figures and combined with deaths confirmed by the Associated Press.
Last week, Gbagbo’s forces entered the Abobo neighborhood and began shelling it with mortars, an escalation indicating the army is willing to use war-grade weapons on its citizens.