Word: cotonou
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...Dahomey had been racked by a three-way tug of war among rival politicians. The tugging ended abruptly one morning late last month when a burly general in a French paratroop uniform with a chest full of medals led his 1,000-man army into the commercial capital of Cotonou. "I am taking over," declared General Christophe Soglo, 56, "because of the incapacity of the politicians to govern." With that, he dissolved the government and declared himself chief of state...
Last week the sounds in the night came from real gunfire as angry mobs swept through the former French West Africa colony, located between Togo and Nigeria on the Gulf of Guinea. In Cotonou, the capital, and nearby Porto-Novo, the ragged crowds carried black-draped coffins and chanted war songs as they ransacked government offices, burned cars, hauled down the green, yellow and red national flag from public buildings, and demanded Maga's ouster. Bariba tribesmen from Maga's native northern region leaped into the fray in his defense and killed two demonstrators with bows and arrows...