16
“They looked at his identity card and shot him dead”
Six months of post-electoral violence in Côte d’Ivoire
Two people were shot dead by the security forces on 4 December 2010 in the Port-Bouët
area of Abidjan as they left their homes early in the morning. An eyewitness told Amnesty
International:
“After the end of the curfew [decreed by Laurent Gbagbo], Bayo Alassane went out to buy
some cigarettes. Everything was calm, there was hardly anyone around in the street but the
security forces shot him dead as well as Kaboré Moumouni, a butcher who was on his way to
work.”
Amnesty International also documented incidents of extrajudicial executions of people within
their homes. One eyewitness told Amnesty International:
“The night of 5-6 December [2010] a large group of security forces supporting Gbagbo came
to our home, some in uniforms and others in plain clothes; we did not open and from the
window we saw seven cargos [army or police vehicles]. When we thought they had gone, we
opened the door and me and my brother, Fofana Youssouf, went out but more forces were
still there and started shooting. We rushed back into the courtyard and at that point my
brother was hit. He died shortly after.”
BOX 3 : SECURITY FORCES AND MILITIAS LOYAL TO LAURENT
GBAGBO
Security Forces
Various security forces that remained loyal to Laurent Gbagbo after the election results were announced in
November 2010 committed serious human rights violations. They include:
The Forces de défense et de sécurité (FDS, Defence and Security Forces), which includes military
personnel, gendarmes (paramilitary police forces) and police forces.
The Centre de commandement des opérations de sécurité (CECOS, Centre for the Command of Security
Operations), which was responsible to the Minister of Defence.
The Brigade anti-émeute (BAE, Anti-Riot Brigade), a police force.
The Compagnies républicaines de sécurité (CRS, Republican Security Companies), a police force.
Militias
The militias supporting Laurent Gbagbo were a nebulous group of many diverse organizations. Roughly
speaking, they encompassed the village self-defence groups, the paramilitary groups in the west of the
country and urban militias in Abidjan.
These urban militias were themselves divided in many sub-groups whose leaders were sometimes former or
current members of the Fédération estudiantine et scolaire de Côte d'Ivoire (FESCI), Ivorian Federation of
Students and School Pupils. These urban groups included :
Amnesty International May 2011
Index: AFR 31/002/2011