Ivory Coast ethnic clashes kill at least 41 - UN
(Bloomberg)
Updated: 2005-06-02 10:01

At least 41 people died and 61 others were wounded in ethnic clashes near the western Ivory Coast town of Duekoue, United Nations officials said.

"Unidentified individuals armed with machetes went into the village of Guetrozon at 3 a.m. local time today," Captain Renald Boismoreau, a spokesman for UN peace-keeping forces, said in a telephone interview from the capital, Abidjan. He said he couldn't confirm reports that the village of Petite Duekoue was attacked at the same time.

The victims were members of the Guere tribe and were taken to a local hospital for treatment, Boismoreau said. "We think it was an inter-ethnic clash," he said.

It wasn't immediately clear what triggered the violence in the world"s biggest supplier of cocoa. Divisions in the country led to civil war in 2002 and ethnic clashes in the west last month left 25 people dead, undermining a cease-fire brokered between rebels and government forces April 6.

Today's attack occurred near the Liberian border, about 400 kilometers from Abidjan, just outside a "no weapons" buffer zone between the rebel controlled-north and government- controlled south that is patrolled by some 6,000 UN peace-keepers and 4,000 French soldiers.

The UN is assisting the government of President Laurent Gbagbo in gaining control over the area by increasing its patrols, Boismoreau said, adding that the government has deployed paramilitary police reinforcements.

Houses were burnt in the attack and villagers have been fleeing from Guetrozon fearing there may be reprisals, Kim Gordon-Bates, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said by telephone from Abidjan. He said that the ICRC is providing emergency care for 5,000-10,000 people.

Margherita Amodeo, a spokeswoman for the UN Operation in Ivory Coast, said the UN is calling on authorities to open an investigation. "We're waiting for a final report from our human rights investigators."

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