By Loucoumane Coulibaly ABIDJAN, April 1 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast slashed taxes on key food imports on Tuesday, bowing to protests by housewives and youths in which residents said one young man was killed. Protesters blocked roads with barricades and burning tyres for a second day as violent demonstrations over rising food prices in West Africa spread to once prosperous Ivory Coast. As police fired tear gas at protesters in a smart suburb of the main city Abidjan, Government Secretary-General Felix Dyela Tyeoulou appeared on the main midday television news bulletin to announce the temporary suspension of import duties on staples. He said other taxes would be cut on some staple foods and the government would reinforce efforts to tackle racketeering which had helped drive up prices for food and cement. "All these measures should allow the government to bring prices for staple foodstuffs back to their level before the present increases," he said. A few hundred metres (yards) from state television studios in Cocody suburb, police played cat-and-mouse with scores of protesters, chasing them away and dismantling barricades. But youths came back to rebuild them once officers moved on. Most shops remained shuttered on Tuesday in Cocody, where at least a dozen people were arrested when protests began on Monday. Police gave no overall figures for arrests. Police officers and residents in other parts of town reached by phone said similar demonstrations were also under way in the populous districts of Yopougon and Port Bouet, where witnesses said one youth was killed during the violence. "I saw one young man dead. He had a big hole in his temple," one witness told Reuters. Police officials declined to comment. Residents said despite some disruption on Monday, traffic was unaffected on Tuesday on major routes through the city to Abidjan's port, the main export terminal for cotton from Burkina Faso and Mali, and around half the cocoa crop from Ivory Coast, the world's top producer. WAVE OF DISCONTENT The unrest follows similar food price protests in Burkina Faso, Senegal and Mauritania, as well as Latin America and Asia. "We are protesting against the high cost of living," road-side trader Clarisse Mango told Reuters in Cocody. "Six months ago I had a business selling doughnuts. I bought a sack of flour at 14,000 CFA francs ($33.37). Two months ago a sack had gone up to 20,000 francs," she said. Protests over food prices have spilled over into violence in several African countries as costs have risen around the world due to record high oil and fuel prices, higher demand for food in Asia and rising use of farm land and crops for biofuels. The United Nations Development Programme estimates nearly 49 percent of Ivory Coast's 19 million people live below the poverty threshold of $2 per day. "Before you could manage with 5,000 CFA a week," said Margueritte Ahoule, a protester in her 60s. "Now 5,000 francs doesn't feed a family for two days." (-- For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com) (-- For full Reuters coverage of rising food prices, visit: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/agflation) (Writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Protesters run from tear gas on the streets of Abidjan April 1, 2008. Police in Ivory Coast fired tear gas on Monday to disperse demonstrators who barred roads and burnt tyres ...
