At least 25 people were killed in clashes between security forces and protesters in Ivory Coast today, prompting rebels and an opposition party to freeze participation in the power-sharing government.
The violence and the political fallout were further blows to the battered peace process in the world's top cocoa-grower, which has been gripped by instability since a failed coup attempt in September 2002 triggered a civil war.
The clashes broke out after opposition supporters began gathering for a rally against President Laurent Gbagbo in the sprawling main city of Abidjan despite an official ban.
Army spokesman Mr N'Goran Aka said two policemen died from gunshot wounds and three were injured in a clash with demonstrators in the Abidjan suburb of Abobo in which a passer-by also died.
"They knew very well the demonstration was banned," said a paramilitary policeman in Abobo. "We started shooting in the air to disperse them, but they fired at us and we had to reply," Mr Aka said.
The streets in Abobo were deserted but for soldiers and checkpoints had sprung up every few hundred metres. Helicopter gunships clattered overhead and the steady sound of shooting could be heard from nearby neighbourhoods.
Mr Aka said two marchers had died in the Koumassi suburb, while a policeman told Reuters in a third area known as Yopougon that the police had shot dead two protesters there.
Mr Guillaume Soro, political leader of the rebels who now call themselves the New Forces, said the military's actions had made it impossible for them to remain in the cabinet.