United Nations staff in western Ivory Coast have found more than 100 bodies in the past 24 hours, some burned alive and others thrown down a well, in a further sign of the ethnic violence gripping the country.
The grim discovery came a week after the International Committee of the Red Cross said at least 800 bodies had been found in the town of Duekoue after an explosion of inter-communal violence.
Meanwhile, Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara called for an end to EU sanctions as more bodies were found today amid a continuing military standoff with incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.
UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said UN workers found 15 more bodies in Duekoue, where the burnings took place, and discovered more than 60 in Guiglo and 40 in Blolequin yesterday. He said it was hard to say who was responsible as long-running ethnic tensions in the region have grown alongside fighting between forces loyal to presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara and those of his rival Laurent Gbagbo.
However, he said the victims in Duekoue appeared to be from the Guere ethnic group supporting Mr Gbagbo, and that the killings took place when fighters loyal to Mr Ouattara took control of the town in their advance towards the south.
"With these very ugly tit-for-tat killings in Duekoue ... (and) 100 more bodies found just yesterday, you're talking about quite an escalation," he told a news briefing in Geneva. "Some of the victims seem to have been burnt alive, and some corpses were thrown down a well.” He said the murders appeared to have been in retaliation for the mid-March killing of 100 people by pro-Gbagbo forces in the same town.
The bodies found in Guiglo and in Blolequin were mostly lying in the streets. Most appeared to have been shot while running away and were wearing civilian clothes.
UN-backed Mr Ouattara said his forces had blockaded Mr Gbagbo in the presidential residence in Abidjan and he had asked the European Union to lift sanctions on the main ports of the world's top cocoa producer.
The European Union is working on a request by Ivory Coast's presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara to ease EU economic sanctions on the west African country, the bloc's executive said today.
"We've received a request from President Ouattara to remove certain entities from the sanctions list," a spokesman for the EU's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said.
"We are working on this in close consultation with President Ouattara, and hope to be able to begin easing the sanctions soon," said the spokesman, who would not be drawn on which sanctions the EU was looking to remove, or the likely timescale.
Mr Ouattara yesterday said he had asked for EU sanctions to be lifted as a first step to returning the country to normality, despite a continuing standoff with incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo.
With Mr Gbagbo refusing to step down, Mr Ouattara, who the UN says won a presidential election meant to draw a line under Ivory Coast's 2002-3 civil war, took the first steps toward assuming executive powers in a televised address yesterday.
He promised to restore security and utilities, meet basic needs and pay salaries after five months of conflict which has killed thousands of people and left residents of what was once West Africa's most prosperous country without food and water.
In New York, Mr Ouattara's UN envoy accused Mr Gbagbo of arming his supporters all over the country but said Mr Ouattara would soon announce an end to a ban on cocoa exports he imposed in January. Dealers say about 500,000 metric tons of cocoa is stuck in the country.
"I have asked that European Union sanctions on the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro and certain public entities, be lifted," Mr Ouattara said in a speech broadcast on French television.
Diplomatic and military efforts to oust Mr Gbagbo this week have been met with fierce resistance and Mr Ouattara said his residence had been sealed off to protect the area.
A week of fighting for control of the economic capital Abidjan has driven terrified residents to scramble to find food and water, with frequent power cuts and hospitals overwhelmed with wounded.
Mr Gbagbo has ruled Ivory Coast since 2000 and blames Paris for supporting the north of the country in the civil war of 2002-03. Rebels from that war now make up the bulk of Mr Ouattara's force.
Reuters