Frank Konate, reporter and Basile Zoma a photographer respectively of 24 Heures, Abidjan-based pro-opposition daily newspaper escaped arson attack from a group of Young Patriots demonstrators.
The journalists were on their way to cover a meeting of the International Task Force created by the United Nations to implement its Resolution 1633 on Cote D’Ivoire. The Resolution said the term of the current Ivorian parliament should not be extended when it expired in 2006. The vehicle conveying the reporters to the meeting was stopped at a roadblock mounted by the demonstrators.
After checking their identities and realizing that, the two were journalists of 24 Heures newspaper, the demonstrators threatened to pour petrol on the car and set it ablaze. They also threatened to overturn the car in which the journalists were traveling. However, the timely intervention of Marshall Eugene Djue Kouadiao, a leading member of the Young Patriots, saved the journalists from the attack. The Young Patriots is a group that supports Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo.
