“They looked at his identity card and shot him dead” Six months of post-electoral violence in Côte d’Ivoire 35 4.2. VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN AND HUMAN RIGHTS LAW 4.2.1 VIOLATIONS COMMITTED BY FORCES LOYAL TO LAURENT GBAGBO On 28 March 2011, Liberian mercenaries and militias loyal to Laurent Gbagbo killed several Dioulas in Duékoué while entering compounds often inhabited by several families. They looted and burned down houses and killed real or presumed supporters of Alassane Ouattara on purely ethnic or political grounds. An Imam, Drissa Konaté, and a man living in the same yard, Samasy Sidicki, were killed in their homes. Pro-Gbagbo forces also killed, the same day, nationals from the sub-region, including three Malians, Nouhoum Ouattara, Ahmed Touré and Souleymane Diakité, who lived in the same compound as well as a Burkina Faso national, Soungalo Ouattara. A child aged four, Sankara Ahmed, burned to death in her home when the house was burned down. Her parents told Amnesty International: "We were only able to bury her bones." A woman from Burkina Faso told Amnesty International how her husband was killed in front of her on 28 March 2011: "When the militias arrived at our house, they threw themselves on my husband. They hit him with a stool. They hit him a few times in the mouth and broke all his teeth. He was bleeding and they finished him off with a knife." Amnesty International was also told that 47 people from the north of the country had been massacred reportedly by Liberian mercenaries loyal to Laurent Gbagbo in Blolequin prefecture (80 km from Duékoué) by the end of March 2011. The Amnesty International delegation visited the place several days later, in April 2011, and found the town completely empty of its inhabitants. The houses and shops had been looted and seriously damaged. The FRCI that were in the area showed the Amnesty International delegation photos of bodies and said that these people had been killed by mercenaries and militias loyal to Laurent Gbagbo. Amnesty International was not able to find any corroboration of the identity of these victims and of the perpetrators. 4.2.2 ABUSES COMMITTED BY THE FAFN BEFORE THEIR INTEGRATION INTO THE FRCI Until Alassane Ouattara announced the creation of the FRCI, on 8 March 2011, the FAFN were formally under the command of Guillaume Soro, Secretary General of the New Forces. In fact, the commanding officers of this armed opposition group were all-powerful in their areas and residents had no recourse to justice due to the total absence of a judicial system and accountability mechanisms. After the December 2010 election results were announced, FAFN members began to take control of several villages in the west of the country, causing tens of thousands of people to flee towards either Liberia or other regions still controlled by forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, especially to the city of Duékoué. Thousands of people, mainly belonging to the Guéré ethnic Index: AFR 31/002/2011 Amnesty International May 2011