Ivory Coast bans New Year's Eve firecrackers

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (Reuters) -- After months of turmoil under military rule, New Year's party-goers in Ivory Coast will have to do without their traditional firecrackers, or face the courts.

"Ivorians are scared of bangs which sound like gunfire," Interior Minister Emile Boga Doudou told state television Thursday evening, after the government said firecrackers would be banned across the West African country over New Year.

"Failure to observe this ban will be punished according to the law," said a government statement that announced the ban on firecrackers from December 1 to January 31, 2001.

Residents said youngsters had begun throwing firecrackers earlier than usual this year, worrying people who mistook the sound for gunfire and feared further unrest.

Ivory Coast's reputation as a traditionally stable country was shattered by a military coup on Christmas Eve in 1999, followed by army mutinies this year. Occasional bursts of gunfire could be heard in the main city Abidjan during military rule.

Civilian rule was restored after Socialist leader Laurent Gbagbo won a controversial October 22 presidential election, but scores were killed when ethnic and political violence broke out in the immediate aftermath of the poll.

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