34 “They looked at his identity card and shot him dead” Six months of post-electoral violence in Côte d’Ivoire However, in some cases, Dioulas saved Guérés. A Guéré woman told Amnesty International: "When the Malinkés (Dioulas) came to attack the neighbourhood I took refuge at the home of a neighbouring family from Burkina Faso. The Malinkés came to ask if there are any Guéré to send them out, to kill them, and my host said that there are only foreigners here, only Dioula. He then helped me to leave the neighbourhood and I came here to the Catholic Mission." A Guéré woman who is now in Abidjan after fleeing the village told Amnesty International: "On Monday [3 January 2011], they came early in the morning. I was in my home in my father’s compound with my mother, my older sister and my little brothers. I was alone in my house, the courtyard is not enclosed. They had knives and machetes. They broke the door and grabbed me. They said nothing, threw themselves on me and did horrible things to me; they raped me, three or four of them. They burned my house, the house of my family and they killed my brother. They stole everything from my shop and then burned it down. We fled the same day, with my mother and my sister-in-law and her children. We hid in the bushes and then went to a small village and after a day came here." During their investigation in the Togueï neighbourhood, in Duékoué, in February 2011, Amnesty International delegates noted that the violence could not be explained simply in terms of inter-communal disputes. A witness showed the delegation houses belonging to Guérés which had not been burned down because they were allegedly supporters of Alassane Ouattara while houses belonging to non-Guérés who allegedly voted for Laurent Gbagbo had been burned down. 4.1.2 OFFENSIVE BY THE FRCI IN THE WEST On 28 March 2011, the FRCI, supported by auxiliary forces composed particularly of Dozos, launched a general offensive in the west of the country and, in three days, took control of almost the entire part of the country that was still in the hands of Laurent Gbagbo supporters. In the days that followed, the two parties to the conflict committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, as well as crimes against humanity. Fierce fighting took place for control of the city of Duékoué on Monday 28 March between forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo and those fighting for Alassane Ouattara. Mercenaries recruited in Liberia and militias supporting Laurent Gbagbo fought alongside of the security forces against the FRCI. Throughout that day, forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo looted the belongings of Malinkés (Dioulas) and killed civilians, including an Imam and another person who was with him. The pro-Gbagbo militias were unable to resist the attack mounted by the FRCI, supported by Dozos and other armed elements in plain clothes, and fled. From the morning of 29 March 2011, the FRCI accompanied by the Dozos took complete control of Duékoué and, in the hours and days that followed, hundreds of people belonging to the Guéré ethnic group were killed deliberately and systematically in Duékoué and in some surrounding villages, simply because they belonged to this particular ethnic group. Amnesty International May 2011 Index: AFR 31/002/2011