Zeinab said she “hurt all over” and showed a journalist the scratches on her body.
“I don’t know what happened but I found myself lying on the ground with people stepping on me, pulling my hair or tearing my clothes,” she said.
She said she had been knocked unconscious and that a young man had pulled her from the crowd.
The New Year’s fireworks, the city’s second in two years, had been touted as a symbol of national renewal under Ouattara after a violent post-election crisis that tore the country apart from December 2010 to April 2011, killing some 3,000 people.
The unrest began after Ouattara’s long-time rival and former iron-fisted ruler Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down.
He was later arrested by forces loyal to Ouattara, with UN and French military backing, and transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where he is accused of crimes against humanity.
Though the troubled west African nation – the world’s top cocoa producer – is still recovering from the political and military crisis, Ouattara had struck a note of optimism in a New Year’s message on Monday evening.
He said the former French colony had “possibilities like seldom before” ahead of it, promising it would soon reap the rewards of economic growth and development.
About The Author
