DAKAR, Senegal, Oct 19, (AP): Ivory Coast's government has announced a ban on all student unions following the deaths of two students and the arrest of 17 suspects in a confrontation between police and a student association with connections to some of the most powerful people in the country. The ban on Thursday came after a government raid on student housing controlled by a student union, known by its French acronym FESCI, that the government says was connected to the deaths.

The National Security Council said that officers discovered large caches of weapons as well as several "illegal businesses” within the student housing complex on the main campus of the University of Abidjan. The arrests targeted FESCI's leadership, including the general secretary, Sié Kambou, who was arrested in connection with the killings, according to a filing by chief prosecutor Koné Oumar.

"No crime can be committed in the FESCI environment without the named Sié Kambou being informed of it,” the court filing said. In a statement on Friday, FESCI called the decision "a flagrant violation of the right to association, assembly and peaceful demonstration conferred by the Constitution” and denied any involvement in the deaths. The ban was the culmination of a government response to the death last month of FESCI member Agui Deagoué. According to the statement from the public prosecutor's office, Deagoué was Kambou's main rival within the union and was kidnapped off the street on his way to a meeting with him.

FESCI was created in 1990 as a student association, but the group soon found itself at odds with then President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who had its leaders arrested for what he deemed illegal meetings and demonstrations. After Houphouët-Boigny's rival, Laurent Gbagbo, came to power in 2000, FESCI enjoyed a privileged status, and authorities looked the other way as members attacked opposition supporters on and off campus. In 2011, Gbagbo lost a presidential election, but refused to concede defeat, triggering an outbreak of violence in which FESCI and its former leaders allegedly attacked the outgoing government's opponents.