Hundreds Killed in Ivory Coast Town as Conflict Intensifies
Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, who seeks to oust Laurent Gbagbo, near Abidjan on Saturday.
By ADAM NOSSITER
Published: April 2, 2011
DAKAR, Senegal — As rebels swept across Ivory Coast in a rapid advance last week to oust the nation’s strongman, Laurent Gbagbo, hundreds of people were killed in a single town, the United Nationsand aid groups said Saturday, in the worst episode of violence during the four-month political crisis that has plunged the country back into civil war.
Related
Gbagbo Is Said to Be Close to Defeat in Ivory Coast (April 2, 2011)
Luc Gnago/Reuters
Gun and artillery fire rocked Abidjan on Saturday as Mr. Gbagbo's loyalists resisted, and retook the state television station.
The New York Times
Duékoué is one of the strategic towns in the country’s cocoa-growing region that was seized last week by forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara.
The exact number of dead was unclear. The United Nations said that 330 people had been killed, while aid organizations put the death toll as high as 1,000. It was also uncertain how many were civilians, and how many were combatants, but Caritas, a Catholic charity whose staff members visited the town, Duékoué, in western Ivory Coast, called it a “massacre.”
The “town was full of bodies,” said Patrick Nicholson, a spokesman for the charity. “They saw bodies in the city, in the bush, mass graves.”
Humanitarian workers did not say who was responsible. But the United Nations said that more than 100 had been killed by Mr. Gbagbo’s fighters, while about 200 had been killed by forces loyal to his rival, Alassane Ouattara, the man recognized by the United Nations, the African Unionand other international bodies as the winner of the presidential election last year.
Mr. Ouattara’s government issued a statement denying responsibility for atrocities in any part of the country, saying its forces had discovered mass graves in other towns that were the result of massacres by Mr. Gbagbo’s forces.
But the killings could call into question how much control Mr. Ouattara has over his forces. If further investigation proved their involvement in civilian deaths, it could tarnish Mr. Ouattara’s reputation overseas, where he is perceived to hold the high moral ground in the standoff with Mr. Gbagbo.
Throughout most of the crisis, civilian killings have come largely at the hands of Mr. Gbagbo’s forces, eliciting threats of criminal charges from international prosecutors. Human rights groups have also accused forces loyal to Mr. Ouattara of some extrajudicial killings, but neither side has been implicated in a single event close to this scale. The United Nations had previously estimated that a total of about 500 people had been killed in the crisis, over four months of tensions and sporadic violence.
Many of Mr. Ouattara’s fighters are former rebels from a 2002 uprising that divided the country in half, and they have come under his banner only recently. The rebels have a history of human rights abuses and had stayed mainly on the sidelines of the political crisis.
Duékoué is one of the strategic towns in the country’s cocoa-growing region they seized last week. A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross “saw a very large number of bodies” there, said a spokeswoman, Dorothea Krimitsas.
“They were shocked by the scale of it,” she said. “We don’t have exact information as to who is behind this. There were at least 800.”
The conflict between Mr. Ouattara and Mr. Gbagbo has unleashed longstanding ethnic rivalries, particularly in the lawless western regions. The Red Cross said the large number of dead it saw in the town on Thursday and Friday were apparently victims of “intercommunal violence.” But it did not assign responsibility for the killings.
With Mr. Gbagbo refusing to step down — despite international condemnation, sanctions and a collapsing economy — the rebels pushed across the country in a rapid sweep last week, advancing all the way to encircle the presidential palace and Mr. Gbagbo’s residence in the nation’s main city, Abidjan.
United Nations peacekeepers are stationed at Duékoué, but it was unclear what knowledge, if any, their base might have had about the mass deaths.
“They are protecting the Catholic mission” where thousands of civilians have taken refuge, said a United Nations spokesman, Hamadoun Touré. “They didn’t tell me anything. If they knew they would have told us,” he said. “In general when there is fighting, there are incidents. Sometimes, there are exaggerations.”
In Abidjan, the country’s commercial capital, gunfire and artillery exchanges rocked the city on Saturday as Mr. Gbagbo stiffly resisted efforts to dislodge him.
Mr. Gbagbo’s loyalists retook the state television station, though Mr. Ouattara’s military spokesman dismissed the significance of its retaking.
“What is preoccupying us is the liberation of the people of Abidjan,” said Capt. Léon Alla, the spokesman. “Not the R.T.I., which is nothing but propaganda,” he said, referring to Radio Télévision Ivorienne.
Still, the station has been one of Mr. Gbagbo’s most powerful weapons in a nonstop campaign to fire up supporters with claims that he is the victim of a Western conspiracy, and both sides have waged a fierce battle for it.
The streets in Abidjan were empty, widespread looting was reported, and residents stayed home, often lying on the floor to avoid stray bullets, which killed a Swedish employee of the United Nations on Thursday. “They are still firing, without interruption,” said Ben Sylla, who lives near the large Agban military base in the Adjamé neighborhood. “Heavy weapons fire,” Mr. Sylla said, adding that dozens of families had taken refuge in a nearby school.
The United Nations spokesman, Mr. Touré, said: “There is firing. Then it calms down. The situation is unchanged.” The United Nations reported that one of its patrols was attacked Friday by Mr. Gbagbo’s forces, and fired back, hitting several of the strongman’s soldiers.
Mr. Gbagbo was believed to be either in the presidential palace downtown, the site of his offices, or in his residence in the Cocody neighborhood. Residents reported hearing gunfire and artillery in both places. His advisers could not be reached Saturday.
DAKAR, Senegal — As rebels swept across Ivory Coast in a rapid advance last week to oust the nation’s strongman, Laurent Gbagbo, hundreds of people were killed in a single town, the United Nationsand aid groups said Saturday, in the worst episode of violence during the four-month political crisis that has plunged the country back into civil war.
Related
Gbagbo Is Said to Be Close to Defeat in Ivory Coast (April 2, 2011)
Luc Gnago/Reuters
Gun and artillery fire rocked Abidjan on Saturday as Mr. Gbagbo's loyalists resisted, and retook the state television station.
The New York Times
Duékoué is one of the strategic towns in the country’s cocoa-growing region that was seized last week by forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara.
The exact number of dead was unclear. The United Nations said that 330 people had been killed, while aid organizations put the death toll as high as 1,000. It was also uncertain how many were civilians, and how many were combatants, but Caritas, a Catholic charity whose staff members visited the town, Duékoué, in western Ivory Coast, called it a “massacre.”
The “town was full of bodies,” said Patrick Nicholson, a spokesman for the charity. “They saw bodies in the city, in the bush, mass graves.”
Humanitarian workers did not say who was responsible. But the United Nations said that more than 100 had been killed by Mr. Gbagbo’s fighters, while about 200 had been killed by forces loyal to his rival, Alassane Ouattara, the man recognized by the United Nations, the African Unionand other international bodies as the winner of the presidential election last year.
Mr. Ouattara’s government issued a statement denying responsibility for atrocities in any part of the country, saying its forces had discovered mass graves in other towns that were the result of massacres by Mr. Gbagbo’s forces.
But the killings could call into question how much control Mr. Ouattara has over his forces. If further investigation proved their involvement in civilian deaths, it could tarnish Mr. Ouattara’s reputation overseas, where he is perceived to hold the high moral ground in the standoff with Mr. Gbagbo.
Throughout most of the crisis, civilian killings have come largely at the hands of Mr. Gbagbo’s forces, eliciting threats of criminal charges from international prosecutors. Human rights groups have also accused forces loyal to Mr. Ouattara of some extrajudicial killings, but neither side has been implicated in a single event close to this scale. The United Nations had previously estimated that a total of about 500 people had been killed in the crisis, over four months of tensions and sporadic violence.
Many of Mr. Ouattara’s fighters are former rebels from a 2002 uprising that divided the country in half, and they have come under his banner only recently. The rebels have a history of human rights abuses and had stayed mainly on the sidelines of the political crisis.
Duékoué is one of the strategic towns in the country’s cocoa-growing region they seized last week. A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross “saw a very large number of bodies” there, said a spokeswoman, Dorothea Krimitsas.
“They were shocked by the scale of it,” she said. “We don’t have exact information as to who is behind this. There were at least 800.”
The conflict between Mr. Ouattara and Mr. Gbagbo has unleashed longstanding ethnic rivalries, particularly in the lawless western regions. The Red Cross said the large number of dead it saw in the town on Thursday and Friday were apparently victims of “intercommunal violence.” But it did not assign responsibility for the killings.
With Mr. Gbagbo refusing to step down — despite international condemnation, sanctions and a collapsing economy — the rebels pushed across the country in a rapid sweep last week, advancing all the way to encircle the presidential palace and Mr. Gbagbo’s residence in the nation’s main city, Abidjan.
United Nations peacekeepers are stationed at Duékoué, but it was unclear what knowledge, if any, their base might have had about the mass deaths.
“They are protecting the Catholic mission” where thousands of civilians have taken refuge, said a United Nations spokesman, Hamadoun Touré. “They didn’t tell me anything. If they knew they would have told us,” he said. “In general when there is fighting, there are incidents. Sometimes, there are exaggerations.”
In Abidjan, the country’s commercial capital, gunfire and artillery exchanges rocked the city on Saturday as Mr. Gbagbo stiffly resisted efforts to dislodge him.
Mr. Gbagbo’s loyalists retook the state television station, though Mr. Ouattara’s military spokesman dismissed the significance of its retaking.
“What is preoccupying us is the liberation of the people of Abidjan,” said Capt. Léon Alla, the spokesman. “Not the R.T.I., which is nothing but propaganda,” he said, referring to Radio Télévision Ivorienne.
Still, the station has been one of Mr. Gbagbo’s most powerful weapons in a nonstop campaign to fire up supporters with claims that he is the victim of a Western conspiracy, and both sides have waged a fierce battle for it.
The streets in Abidjan were empty, widespread looting was reported, and residents stayed home, often lying on the floor to avoid stray bullets, which killed a Swedish employee of the United Nations on Thursday. “They are still firing, without interruption,” said Ben Sylla, who lives near the large Agban military base in the Adjamé neighborhood. “Heavy weapons fire,” Mr. Sylla said, adding that dozens of families had taken refuge in a nearby school.
The United Nations spokesman, Mr. Touré, said: “There is firing. Then it calms down. The situation is unchanged.” The United Nations reported that one of its patrols was attacked Friday by Mr. Gbagbo’s forces, and fired back, hitting several of the strongman’s soldiers.
Mr. Gbagbo was believed to be either in the presidential palace downtown, the site of his offices, or in his residence in the Cocody neighborhood. Residents reported hearing gunfire and artillery in both places. His advisers could not be reached Saturday.
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