named Salam died from a second bomb dropped about one hundred meters from the one that killed the children. A Nigerian woman died from her injuries two days later, in Vavoua, from a third bomb dropped in the vicinity. Everyone went to the bush that night. The rebels came and told people to come back when it was over. Then there was another bombing, about one week later. This time it was a plane, it flew much quicker than the helicopter. The plane came at about the same time of day, between 5 and 6 p.m. It also dropped bombs and fired shots. Again, the Niédéboua quartier was not affected. The second bombing hit the Blanco bar, in the middle of the village. The rebels were about twenty meters from the Blanco bar, at the roundabout in the middle of the village.62 Government forces launched another helicopter gunship attack at the end of December, targeting a fish market and local boats crossing the lake in Menakro, a lakeside village in central Côte d’Ivoire fifty kilometers north of the cease-fire line. This attack prompted a swift response from the French, whose military forces confirmed that at least eleven civilians were killed in the attack. A French military source said, “People were shot at like rabbits.”63 The government claimed that the attack was aimed at rebel troops who were present in the boats and village, but President Gbagbo agreed to ground the helicopter gunships and stop using mercenaries after the French government strongly condemned the incident.64 Targeted helicopter attacks on the Zouan-Hounien area: April 2003 Despite the government’s commitment to ground the helicopters in December 2002, the helicopters were used again in January and when government forces launched a new offensive on rebel positions along the Liberian border in April 2003. Helicopter attacks targeted Danané, Vavoua, Mahapleu, Bin Houyé and Zouan-Hounien between April 6 and April 16, 2003. This was not the first time they had been used along the border area— Danané, Toulepleu and Bin Houyé were all bombed since January—but this time international agencies on the ground had access to civilian victims from the attacks. While some of the bombings no doubt targeted military objectives, others were clearly indiscriminate or targeted civilians. Initial helicopter attacks on Zouan-Hounien—aimed at military objectives—had taken place on April 6. Most of the civilian population fled after these attacks, leaving only a small community sheltering in the Catholic Mission, which included a medical center for the treatment of Burullic ulcer patients. Following the aerial attack, Liberian and Gueré militias entered the town but soon left, taking most of the remaining Gueré civilians with them. On April 13, rebel forces re-captured the town. Fearing further aerial attacks, the remaining Muslim and northern civilian community took shelter at the Catholic Mission. On April 14, the government helicopters returned and proceeded to launch an intensive fifteen-minute assault on the compound of the Catholic mission, including some fifty rockets, despite the fact that the medical center was clearly visible. Civilians fleeing the attack were shot down by the helicopter according to witnesses. At least four civilians were killed and more than twenty were injured in the assault, mostly sick children who had been receiving treatment in the center. The following day, the remaining patients and staff from the mission fled the area on foot.65 The attack on Zouan-Hounien constituted a serious violation of international humanitarian law, as it was a deliberate attack on civilians in a hospital where no military objective was present. A further fifty civilians were wounded in the helicopter attacks on Danané and Mahapleu on April 16, according to the medical humanitarian organization Médecins sans Frontières, which treated some of the wounded. Nine 62 Human Rights Watch interview, Bobo-Dioulasso, February 9, 2003. 63 Christophe Ayad & Jean-Dominique Merchet, “La Côte-d’Ivoire s’embrase, la France s’embourbe,” Liberation, January 3, 2003, at www.liberation.fr (accessed January 9, 2003). 64 French government spokesperson, press briefing, Paris, January 2, 2003, at www.diplomatie.fr/actual/declarations/pp/20030102.html (accessed May 16, 2003). 65 Inza Kigbafory, “Comment le MI-24 a bombardé un centre anti-ulcère de Burili,” L'Inter, April 22, 2003, at www.presseci.com/linter/archive/1487.html (accessed May 20, 2003) and confidential communication on file with Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch 22 August 2003, Vol. 15, No. 14 (A)