Ivory Coast Police Clash With Students Assailing Regime

Paramilitary troops broke up peaceful protests Friday with tear gas and smoke grenades, and Ivory Coast students retaliated by hurling firebombs, stoning cars and looting a supermarket.

Hundreds of civil servants went on strike and joined university students outside downtown ministry offices yelling: “Houphouet: thief! Houphouet: corrupt!”

Demonstrators calling for President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, 84, to step down pose the strongest challenge the Ivorian leader has faced since he took control of this West African nation when it became independent from France in 1960.

The government announced Friday evening that it was closing all schools and the university in Abidjan, along with boarding school dormitories and student residences.