The United Nations said yesterday that at least 50 people have been killed in Ivory Coast’s post-election crisis, amid reports of “massive” human rights abuses, and refused to withdraw its peacekeepers.
The UN force’s determination to stay threatens to provoke a showdown with strongman Laurent Gbagbo’s hardline supporters, but leaders of the world body said it would remain and investigate reports of death squad killings.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed concern about “the growing evidence of massive violations of human rights” in the restive West African country since Thursday.
“In the past three days there has been more than 50 people killed, and over 200 injured,” she said in a statement issued in Geneva, vowing “to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable for their actions.”
Mr Gbagbo ordered the 10,000-strong UN mission to leave on Saturday, accusing it of arming rebels loyal to his rival Alassane Ouattara, but UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon dismissed the ultimatum and urged him to step down.
Both Mr Gbagbo and Mr Ouattara claim to have won last month’s presidential vote but, while the latter has been recognised as the victor by the international community, the incumbent is clinging doggedly on to power. Tension has reached boiling point in the commercial capital Abidjan, where violence erupted Thursday during a protest march by Mr Ouattara’s supporters, and where Mr Gbagbo’s armed forces are in an uneasy stand-off with the UN.
“We’re going to continue our patrols but we’re not seeking confrontation,” said Hamadoun Toure of the United Nations Operation in Cote d’Ivoire (UNOCI). “We’re increasing our vigilance, and we’re ready for anything.”
State TV has rebroadcast Mr Gbagbo’s spokeswoman reading the expulsion order every few hours, but there was no sign of an increase in tension near UN bases in Abidjan, although the streets were eerily quiet.
In Geneva, Ms Pillay said the UN mission “has received reports from hundreds of victims and members of their families about the abduction of individuals from their homes, especially at night.”
She said witnesses blame “armed individuals in military uniform accompanied by elements of the Defence and Security Forces or militia groups”. Ivory Coast’s official “Defence and Security Forces” back Mr Gbagbo’s rule.
“Abducted persons are reportedly taken by force to illegal places of detention where they are held incommunicado and without charge. Some have been found dead in questionable circumstances,” Ms Pillay added.