Military service to return for Ivorians

The Ivory Coast is reported to be planning to reintroduce compulsory military service in December.

In an interview with the French news agency AFP the defence minister, Moise Lida Kouassi, is quoted as saying conscription would promote what he called an umbilical link between the army and the nation.

Mr Lida Kouassi said this would help forestall the possibility of another military coup.

He said conscripts would receive basic military training, take part in work projects, and would be trained in various trades to enable them to find work when they returned to civilian life. Ivory Coast has enjoyed relative stability since independence in 1960: it was rocked by a military coup in 1999 led by Robert Guei, who was ousted last year.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service