Death toll in Côte d’Ivoire post-electoral violence over 462 - UN

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Death toll in Côte d’Ivoire post-electoral violence over 462 - UN

2011-03-25 08:16:19 GMT+7 (ICT)

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations (UN) on Thursday informed that Côte d’Ivoire's death toll from the post-electoral violence continues to rise, warning that systematic attacks on civilians could constitute crimes against humanity.

"The total number of deaths since mid-December 2010 is now more than 462," Guillaume Ngefa, the deputy head of the human rights division of the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI), said during a news conference in the commercial capital of Abidjan.

Late last year, the country plunged into turmoil after then incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo lost a UN-certified and internationally recognized election to opposition figure Alassane Ouattara in November. However, Gbagbo has refused to step down and his supporters have been waging a campaign of violent intimidation of their political rivals.

Ngefa said that the violence perpetrated in one week against the civilian population in certain neighborhoods in the north of Abidjan has resulted in 52 deaths, including five children and seven women, as well as dozens of injured.

Highlighting some of the recent violence, Ngefa said the neighborhood of Abobo had been bombarded with rockets by elements of the Ivorian Defence and Security Forces (FDS), and that the rockets had killed 19 people on the night of March 17 to 18.

"The FDS, supported by young militias, invaded Adjamé, Attécoubé, Williamsville and Yopougon, firing and launching grenades indiscriminately on civilians they suspected of being pro-Ouattara," Ngefa stated, adding that Akekoi village, considered to be a pro-Gbagbo bastion in Abobo with the majority of its residents being of the Attié ethnic group, was attacked by armed youths.

"At least one civilian was killed during the attack," he said, stating that isolated cases of post-electoral violence had also been reported in Sinfra and Agboville.

Furthermore, Ngefa said people in Abobo, Williamsville, Yopougon and other neighborhoods in Abidjan continue to leave in huge numbers because of the fighting and the lack of access to food and medicines.

During the weekend and on Monday, monitors with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) saw thousands of people trying to leave from Adjamé and Yopougon bus terminals in Abidjan. An estimated 300,000 people in Abidjan are displaced, many of them former residents of Abobo, according to the agency.

UNOCI, in accordance with its mandate to protect civilians, is continuing to provide support to the population, through patrols, medical assistance and monitoring and reporting of human rights violations, he added.

The 9,000-strong UNOCI has been supporting the stabilization and reunification efforts in the country over the past seven years following the end of the civil war that in 2002 split the country into a Government-held south and a rebel-controlled north.

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