United Nations officials have intensified their condemnation of an attack on Thursday by forces allied to Ivory Coast's defeated president on a market that killed 25 to 30 people and wounded dozens more, with the Organization’s human rights office warning that it could be a crime against humanity.

Such charges can bring the alleged perpetrator within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court,  whose prosecutor is already leading a preliminary examination into the deadly violence sparked by former president Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to step down despite his UN-certified and internationally recognized defeat by opposition leader Alassane Ouattara in last November’s run-off elections.

“We utterly condemn (the) attack by rockets or other missiles on a civilian area in the Abobo suburb of the [commercial] capital Abidjan,” UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesperson Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva. The neighbourhood is a Ouattara stronghold.

“It is quite difficult to avoid the conclusion that this may be an international crime, possibly a crime against humanity. We are very concerned that the situation in Ivory Coast appears to have deteriorated even further over the past week.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also voiced shock at the attack, in which six mortars were fired into the market, condemned the recent escalation of violence, and warned the Ivorian parties to bring the fighting and related human rights violations to an end without further delay. 

“The Secretary-General urges the Security Council to take further measures with regard to the Ivorian individuals who are instigating, orchestrating and committing the violence,” a statement issued by his spokesperson said. 

The UN peacekeeping operation in Ivory Coast (UNOCI), which has blamed Gbagbo loyalists for much of the violence that has killed over 400 people since December and voiced outrage immediately after yesterday’s attack on the Ouattara stronghold of Abobo, has vowed that the perpetrators will not go unpunished.

Source: UN