Christmas Coup d'Etat

Two days 'til Christmas - time for a quick trip to the supermarket to pick up some last minute goodies… Strange how there's so much traffic on this little back road, and all of it going the opposite way to us!…Well here we are at the main road anyway… What's that army truck doing parked right across the main carriageway?… Perhaps the President is passing through and they're closing the road off… That taxi's going very fast…and why is its back door open?… Hey there's a soldier leaning out of the door pointing a machine gun back down the road… I'm sure those were gunshots… Let's get home NOW!… Daddy I'm scared, what's happening!… It's OK Christopher they aren't shooting at us… Dear Lord, please get us home safely… Thank you Lord, we're safely home… Pass this message around quickly: "Everyone must stay indoors. Something very serious is going on!"
  That's how the Christmas coup d'état began for us. The following few days were not easy. That night there was a lot of gunfire, even within yards of where we live. We stayed in with the lights out and kept our heads down. On Christmas Eve our local shopping centre was looted and ransacked. Amazingly, on Monday 27th everyone went back to work and life returned to normal except that we were now under military rule. Most Ivorians seemed delighted to be rid of President Bedié and very happy that the military were promising a swift transition to truly democratic civilian rule.
  Now, the political temperature is rising again. Various parties and personalities are jostling for support in advance of the elections, which have been promised before the end of the year. A new constitution is due to be submitted to a national referendum at the end of May, but the constitutional committee is finding it hard to reach consensus on what to propose. Please pray for peace, justice and righteousness. Pray also for the interim president, General Robert Guei, who has the difficult task of maintaining unity in a very tense situation.