Soldiers who mutinied in Ivory Coast over bonuses for their role in the country's coup last December reached a compromise agreement with the ruling military junta yesterday and called on their comrades to return to barracks. A spokesman for the mutineers who accepted the settlement, Mr Alain Kacou, a navy quartermaster, was surrounded by fellow mutineers as he went on state television to tell the nation that the compromise had been reached during talks earlier in the day with the military ruler, Gen Robert Guei, and the rest of the junta.
"It's an exclusively military problem," he said. "We have achieved a consensus so I ask all my comrades . . . to return to barracks." The Information Minister, Lieut Henri Cesar Sama Damalan, introduced Mr Kacou saying: "A compromise has been found."
Neither man gave any details but Mr Kacou said that private vehicles hijacked by the mutineers since the crisis began on Tuesday would be returned to their owners. The deal was struck after a clash in which up to three soldiers died.
The mutiny began on Tuesday when soldiers took to the streets of the main city Abidjan, the second city Bouake and the northern town of Korhogo, hijacking private cars and shooting in the air.
Police in Bouake said that rampaging soldiers had shot dead an Ivorian news photographer on Tuesday - the first reported death in the crisis in the world's leading cocoa producer.
Yesterday, the mutineers stopped people travelling to work in a direct challenge to the junta, which had broadcast a statement saying that life was back to normal and everyone should return to work.
The coup last December was the first in traditionally stable Ivory Coast since independence from France in 1960. Some military sources suggested that the clash yesterday, the first time rival soldiers had turned their guns on one another either in the December coup or in later army unrest, was delaying the public announcement of the deal.
Sources among the mutineers said they had accepted an advance payment of part of the six million CFA francs (£7,200) they had been demanding.
Gen Guei, installed as head of state by young soldiers who toppled President Henri Konan Bedie on Christmas Eve, on Tuesday invited the mutineers to join him in negotiating a solution.
"I remain open to dialogue. You can send your delegations to me," he said, assuring the mutineers they could trust the junta and adding that acts such as Tuesday's threatened to tarnish the army's image and would lead to soldiers being blacklisted.
Gen Guei had returned to Abidjan late on Monday from a nationwide tour ahead of a referendum on July 23rd on a new constitution, the first vote of a promised transition back to civilian rule.
Gen Guei, who has been gradually asserting his authority, has promised presidential and legislative elections in September and October. He is widely believed to be planning to run for president himself.