There were 26 extrajudicial executions in Ivory Coast in the last four weeks, mostly blamed on fighters who helped President Alassane Ouattara take power, the UN mission reported Thursday.

The killings were reported between July 11 and August 10, the rights representative for the UN's Ivory Coast mission, Guillaume Ngefa, said at a press conference. There were "26 cases of extrajudicial execution, summary or arbitrary" and "85 cases of arbitrary arrest and illegal detention," he said.

Most often implicated in the "numerous violations of human rights" being recorded were men whom locals and victims identified as belonging to the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast (FRCI), Ngefa said. The FRCI helped Ouattara take power in May after an election dispute with ex-president Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to step down after losing elections in November.

17-month-old child
Gbagbo's position led to a four-month conflict in which 3,000 people were killed and both sides were accused of serious abuses. It ended when the FRCI, backed by French forces, arrested Gbagbo on April 11, also rounding up dozens of his supporters who remain under house arrest.

The 26 people killed in the past month included a 17-month-old child and were shot dead in the western village of Duekoue and central-western Daloa, areas populated by supporters of Gbagbo, Ngefa said.

The executions were blamed mostly on "elements of the FRCI" as well as locals who support them, but also sometimes on pro-Gbagbo fighters, Ngefa said. Eight communal graves had also been discovered near the economic capital Abidjan, he said, without giving details.

New army
Establishing security remains a major challenge in the world's leading cocoa producer after the election dispute, which culminated in a nearly two-week battle in Abidjan.
There have been some improvements, especially in Abidjan, but FRCI troops are regularly accused of abuses, execution, violence and looting.

The group comprises mainly former rebel fighters from the Muslim-dominated north who were behind a failed 2002 uprising against Gbagbo, who had his support in the popular mostly Christian south.

They are being integrated into a new post-conflict army, called the Republican Forces, that will also include troops from the Defence and Security Forces (FDS) army that backed Gbagbo in the dispute. Ngefa said the FRCI was maintaining its control over the north of the country and continuing to collect "commercial, mining and customs taxes".

“No physical torture”
While both sides have been accused of serious violations, charges have only been laid against 38 members of the Gbagbo camp, including his son Michel. Laurent Gbagbo and his wife Simone, being held in different locations in the north, have yet to be indicted.

Ngefa said he had spoken to the couple about their detention conditions, including in terms of access to information and their lawyers.

"Some concerns were noted regarding the detention conditions," he said, without elaborating. He said those for Simone Gbagbo were good but would not comment on those for Laurent Gbagbo.

The detention conditions of other former regime insiders were generally good, though seven people held in the town of Bouna had complained of unhygienic conditions, he said. "But none of these people mentioned being physically tortured, which is the most important thing," he said.

Source: AFA