By Tim Cocks and Ange Aboa
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's banking system was heading towards total collapse on Thursday with virtually all its banks shut and the others swamped by customers desperately trying to withdraw their savings.
The country's biggest bank, a unit of Societe Generale, suspended operations on Thursday, the latest in an exodus of foreign banks from the West African nation that is turning political crisis into financial meltdown.
A violent power struggle over a disputed November 28 election between incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and rival Alassane Ouattara is ruining the nation's economy, as EU and U.S. sanctions on Gbagbo and his backers for refusing to cede power start to bite.
The election was meant to reunite a country divided since a 2002-3 civil war and to spur investment. But the stand-off, which has killed some 300 people according to the United Nations, has merely deepened divisions.
Five African leaders charged with finding a solution to the crisis are due to meet this weekend, but Ouattara's camp doubts they will succeed and called on Ivorians to mount a Tunisian- or Egyptian-style revolution rather than seek outside help.
Gbagbo has defied international pressure to step down after U.N.-certified results showed Ouattara won the poll but a pro-Gbagbo legal body reversed the results.
He has been cut off from the West African central bank and has seized its local office, triggering a liquidity crisis.
Shutters were down on branches across Abidjan, the main city, while customers tried to shout, push and sometimes punch their way through crowds outside the few banks still open.
"I'm here to take out as much as possible," said Hamed Yao, 31, a book seller, at an Ecobank branch where a security guard was overwhelmed as clients stampeded in.
"I don't see why we should suffer because of politicians."
Societe Generale became the fifth bank to close after fellow French bank BNP Paribas's Ivorian unit, Citibank, Nigeria's Access Bank and Standard Chartered all suspended operations this week.
The Ivorian-owned International Bank for West Africa BIAO and Banque Atlantique shut on Thursday afternoon.
Half a dozen smaller banks, including pan-African Ecobank and three government-owned firms, were still open.
A $2.3 billion (£1.4 billion) defaulted Ivorian Eurobond shed half a point to 36.48 percent, to yield of 16.9 percent.
CALL FOR REVOLUTION
In a sign Gbagbo's government may be getting desperate for money, the head of the cocoa regulator Glibert Anoh told Reuters he would seek export tax from companies for cocoa in warehouses, even if sanctions prevent them from exporting.
"By March 31 we will recover all royalties from the cocoa in warehouses. Whether or not it gets exported, it will be paid."
Late on Wednesday, Gbagbo's planning minister Justin Kone rowed back on insisting banks clear checks through a new system in an apparent effort to encourage banks to re-open.
Cocoa farmers burnt sacks of beans outside the Ivorian offices of the European Union to protest against sanctions on regulators that are strangling the cocoa trade and preventing ships from docking at the country's ports.
The crisis has pushed cocoa futures to fresh highs.
Sanctions and the decision by West African leaders to cut Gbagbo off from the BCEAO central bank were meant to sever his access to funds but the shuttering of banks will hit all levels of society, with unknown consequences.
Gbagbo, who remains in control of the military and the state broadcaster, is likely to blame the crisis on Ouattara, who has been backed by world leaders but remains blockaded in a lagoon-side hotel, protected by U.N. peacekeepers.
Ouattara's Prime Minister Guillaume Soro acknowledged previous killings by the security forces during attempts to hold protests but said the alternative, doing nothing, was worse.
"The people of Ivory Coast should not expect anything from the African Union ... The people of Ivory Coast must have its revolution ... chase Gbagbo from power," he said in Dakar.
Standard Bank analyst Samir Gadio said on Wednesday the closing of banks would erode Gbagbo's support, especially if salaries are not paid at the end of the month.
"A practical option for Gbagbo's government would be to formally exit the CFA zone and launch an Ivorian currency as this would allow fiscal operations to be funded via central bank financing, although it would also result in an (hyper) inflation spiral and make the new unit worthless from day one," he said.
(Writing by Tim Cocks and David Lewis; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
