At least 55 killed in Ivory Coast violence

Thousands of people fled a town in western Ivory Coast yesterday after at least 55 people were killed in a massacre and revenge slayings that have inflamed tribal rivalries in the tinderbox region.

The violence, the worst in the West African nation for months, raised the spectre of the world's top cocoa grower slipping back into a civil war that has killed thousands and threatened to suck in its shaky neighbours.

Ivory Coast's army and UN peacekeepers sent reinforcements to the western cocoa town of Duekoue, where scores of men, women and children from the local Guere tribe were shot, knifed and burnt to death by unidentified attackers on Wednesday.

Hundreds of people thronged the roads out of Duekoue, their most precious belongings perched on their heads. Others piled into minivans or trucks normally used for cocoa, with the exodus picking up speed as more soldiers arrived in the town.

Later, Ivory Coast's army urged people not to flee and started turning back those on the roads. Senior military sources said the two top officers in Duekoue had been sacked for failing to manage the situation properly.