UN chief Ban Ki-moon demanded that Ivory Coast’s internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara take action over a massacre of several hundred people blamed on his followers, a spokesman said yesterday.
Mr Ouattara denied to Mr Ban in a telephone conversation that his forces were involved in mass killings in the western town of Duekoue, according to UN spokesman Martin Nesirky. Mr Ouattara said he had ordered an investigation.
“The Secretary General expressed particular concern and alarm about reports that pro-Ouattara forces may have killed many civilians in the town of Duekoue in the west of the country.
“The Secretary General said those responsible should be held accountable,” according to Mr Nesirky.
“President Ouattara, while denying his forces were involved, said he had launched an investigation and would welcome an international inquiry into the matter,” he added.
Meanwhile the latest reports emerging from Ivory Coast indicate that strongman Laurent Gbagbo’s militia first swept into the western town of Duekoue, killing, raping and looting with impunity.
Then in came his rival’s army, executing revenge attacks in a chilling massacre which left hundreds dead.
Duekoue, home to some 75,000 people, fell to forces backing internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara on Tuesday after they fought fierce battles with Mr Gbagbo’s troops.
After that, aid agencies, charities and the United Nations have reported hundreds of deaths spread over three brutal days.
The violence pitted the indigenous Guere ethnic group – reputedly pro-Gbagbo – against members of other tribes, who are seen to back Mr Ouattara.
“Before we arrived, the pro-Gbagbo camp took the non-locals into a house and were preparing to burn them when we freed them,” said a source in Mr Ouattara’s Republican Forces army (FRCI).
Once freed, those who were rescued sought vengeance.
“They said they knew where (their captors) were hiding and they wanted to attack them. At least 12 were killed,” said the FRCI source, without saying whether they had tried to prevent the revenge attack.
In the tumultous region, known as the “Far West”, the political conflict between Mr Gbagbo – who refuses to cede power – and Mr Ouattara, fuels existing tensions between the local Gueres and the non-natives.
Since Mr Ouattara’s army seized Duekoue, in an offensive to wrest control of the country from his rival, some 4,000 people have sought refuge in a church, fearing reprisals.
“We don’t want to return home, we are afraid”, one of the refugees told AFP at the church, which is under the protection of the UN peacekeeping mission UNOCI.
Catholic charity Caritas said that 1,000 people had been killed or ‘disappeared’ particularly in the Carrefour suburb of Duekoue.
“Many bodies still litter the streets and bushes in the city,” Caritas spokesman Patrick Nicholson said.
The International Red Cross spoke of at least 800 victims of what appeared to be an incident of inter-ethnic violence “particularly shocking by its size and brutality”.
Guillaume N’Gefa from the human rights division of the UN mission in Ivory Coast said that of 330 killed in the town earlier this week, most were victims of Ouattara forces.
Before the Republican Forces army arrived, Carrefour was the base of pro-Gbagbo militia in the region, under the command of a man named “Colombo”.
In suburbs such as Niambi, the streets are deserted. The town is almost entirely razed to the ground, an AFP journalist said, adding he saw numerous charred bodies in the rubble.
About 150 people had sought refuge in a single classroom.
“Here, Colombo’s militia and mercenaries killed 20 people before the arrival of the FRCI”, said Kouadio Gao Hubert, a Niambi resident.