Fears grew for the safety of civilians in this tense economic capital Thursday as the violent standoff between Ivory Coast's two rival presidents threatens to degenerate into full-scale civil war.

A spokesman for the UN mission in Ivory Coast (ONUCI) said Thursday that 18 people have been killed nationwide in the past week, bringing to 410 the number of fatalities since a disputed election in November last year.

Recalcitrant strongman Laurent Gbagbo is refusing to cede power to internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara in a stand-off which has plunged the world's top cocoa producer into a bloody crisis.

"In the current flare-up of violence, born of the political impasse," ONUCI has recorded "an increase in the number of victims," said spokesman Hamadoun Toure.

He was addressing journalists in Abidjan at the weekly press briefing of the 10,000-strong UN mission.

"Following violent confrontations in many parts of Abidjan and the interior of the country, our human rights division has documented 18 new deaths, including four women, bringing to 410 the number of people killed in the country since mid-December 2010," Toure added.

He emphasised the plight of children who faced being "attacked physically, killed, maimed for life and often forced to leave their families and abandon school to escape the fighting."

"To this must be added the enormous psychological trauma of these children whose parents are sometimes killed before their eyes."

In Abidjan, gunfire and violence have become a daily occurrence as pro-Gbagbo forces attempt to fight off encroaching insurgents loyal to Ouattara, trying to wrest control of the city.

"There was shooting all night. It was so loud we couldn't sleep," said one resident of an area near Port-Bouet 2, a pro-Ouattara enclave in the suburb of Youpougon, a Gbagbo stronghold.

In a statement, the aid group Doctors without Borders (MSF) warned of serious consequences for the local population as the violence crippled health care services and forced tens of thousands flee their homes.

"Over the course of two weeks, we treated 129 people" in a hospital in the Ouattara stronghold of Abobo, where MSF has stepped in as health workers fled, emergency manager Medo Terzian said.

This included "81 with gunshot and knife wounds", he added.

Tuesday, an imam was killed inside his mosque in Port-Bouet 2, according to the executive secretary of the Ivory Coast Superior Council of Imams, Ousmane Diakite.

"After Abobo, it is now the turn of Yopougon to experience the terror of Gbagbo's clan, especially in Port-Bouet 2," said a statement from Ouattara's defense ministry.

"Under the pretext of fighting rebels, mortar shells of 60, 81 and 82mm, RPG7 rockets and grenades have been fired in Port-Bouet 2 since Tuesday," it noted.

The International Federation of Human Rights said Thursday it has received reports of "businesses burned or looted and people abducted from their homes" in Port-Bouet 2.

Tuesday, Ouattara urged his rival to seize a last chance to peacefully cede power.

"It is time that he accepts the will of the Ivorian people and the African Union," Ouattara said.

The African Union last week endorsed Ouattara's election win, a move rejected by Gbagbo aides.

"He (Gbagbo) must understand that for him and those close to him it is his last chance to make a peaceful and honourable exit from the crisis," Ouattara said.

Ouattara has been running his government from Abidjan's posh Golf Hotel where he has been holed up since late last year, under the protection of peacekeepers and his supporters and besieged by pro-Gbagbo troops.

On Tuesday, Gbagbo loyalists beat back pro-Ouattara forces in the strategic town of Duekoue in a battle for control of western Ivory Coast.

Fighters of the former rebel New Forces (FN) allied with Ouattara have held the north of this former French colony since a 2002 civil war.

(Source: AFP)