“They looked at his identity card and shot him dead”
Six months of post-electoral violence in Côte d’Ivoire
41
One woman told Amnesty International: "I went to see the UNOCI people to tell them that our
men and boys were being massacred and that they ought to intervene but they did nothing."
The UNOCI's presence in the Duékoué region was limited to one battalion of 200 Moroccan
soldiers, one of whose tasks was to protect the camp for displaced people that had been set
up in the city's Catholic Mission. Amnesty International notes actions taken by Moroccan
soldiers who went into the bush to help people who had fled their homes following threats
from the FRCI and other associated armed elements. However, the insufficient numbers of
UNOCI in this region meant that protection for tens of thousand of displaced people who
wanted to go back to their homes was not provided. The insufficient number of UNOCI troops
was even clearer in the area between Guiglo and Blolequin (to the southwest of Duékoué).
Although a UNOCI battalion conducted two patrols per day in the area, testimonies indicate
that the UNOCI vehicles were speeding through ghost villages without stopping to inquire
about the situation of displaced people.
Since 29 March 2011, Amnesty International publicly made several appeals to UNOCI to
strengthen its presence in the area. In April 2011, the Amnesty International delegation
raised this question at a meeting with several high level UNOCI representatives in Abidjan,
emphasizing the urgency of protecting the population in the west of the country. They replied
that the general responsible for that area had not requested reinforcements. (See below
Section 6.3).
BOX 5. MASSACRES IN DUÉKOUÉ: A POLEMIC ABOUT THE
FIGURES
The number of people killed at Duékoué and the identity of the perpetrators of these killings has been the
subject of an intense polemic. On 1 April 2011, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) publicly
stated that "at least 800 people" had been killed on 29 March, during "inter-communal violence".
The UNOCI Human Rights Division stated hat "330 people had been killed" between 28 and 30 March 2011 in
Duékoué and that "most of the 330 people killed had been executed by Dozos (traditional hunters) fighting
alongside the FRCI".25 UNOCI added that the victims were "militiamen and civilians, including women and
children."
These versions have been categorically denied by FRCI spokesman, Seydou Ouattara, who said that those
killed in Duékoué were "militiamen and not civilians." 26
In April 2011, Amnesty International interviewed a witness in Duékoué who had helped Moroccan soldiers of
UNOCI to count the people killed in the Quartier Carrefour and helped the Red Cross to bury some of them. This
person said that 817 bodies had been counted, including:
one woman.
24 people under the age of 20, including a child aged three.
Index: AFR 31/002/2011
Amnesty International May 2011