population. Acts of violence did occur, however, particularly in connection with the looting (see below, chapter VIII). The government attacked the town with helicopter gunships on December 2, targeting the transformers and knocking out the electricity, which displaced many people, but after a week, even some of the Gueré townspeople returned. For the Liberians, looting was the main activity, but “once the rebels had pillaged the houses, we could live in peace with them,” as one civilian summed it up.97 The Liberian rebels in Toulepleu were initially all Gio from Nimba county, but were later joined by a contingent of Yacouba from Danané and two more contingents, including some Krahn from Grand Gedeh.98 The Sierra Leonean forces were part of the MPIGO force.99 By mid-December, there was a schism between the MPCI and the Liberian-backed MPIGO, which appears to have been related to the way the Liberians and Sierra Leoneans treated the civilian population. The problem apparently started in Danané, where the MPCI asked the Dioula population to help them by contributing money. The Dioula community apparently did so, pooling together a contribution to the MPCI. This angered the MPIGO, who began searching the Dioulas and killed two Dioula civilians, one after he refused to let MPIGO fighters rape his wife, the other for his money.100 Apparently the MPCI tried to stop the MPIGO from stealing from and harassing the civilian population, at which point the MPIGO threatened to kill all the Dioula if the MPCI attacked them. Human Rights Watch learned that a deal was struck whereby the MPCI installed itself in Man and used that town as a regional base, leaving Danané and the western strip of towns along the border to the MPIGO. The uneasy deal struck between the two rebel allies more or less held until early March 2003.101 By April, there was increasing friction between Felix Doh, the nominal Ivorian leader of MPIGO, and the Liberian and Sierra Leonean forces within the group. The friction may have been due to Doh’s efforts to curb the abuses of the mercenary fighters, or to internal power disputes between Doh and the Liberian and Sierra Leonean leaders. Regardless of the exact cause, this friction culminated in the death of Doh, reportedly at the hands of Sierra Leonean ex-RUF leader Sam Bockarie, at the end of April. Even prior to this event, however, the decision to let the MPIGO and their Liberians control the border strip had devastating consequences in the west, particularly after the government recruited its own Liberian mercenaries, turning the war into an extension of the Liberian conflict, with many terrible implications for civilians. With help from its Liberian recruits, the government’s forces regained control of Blolékin, located between Toulepleu and Guiglo, by December 12. By early-January 2003, loyalist forces had regrouped with a full contingent of Liberian recruits. The government’s forces attacked Toulepleu, capturing the town on January 12, 2003.102 That day, four local Ivorian Red Cross volunteers disappeared in Toulepleu; their bodies were recovered weeks later.103 In the following weeks, the rebels launched several counterattacks, and many villages around the town were burned and destroyed. By pitting Liberians against Liberians and reviving the Liberian ethnic feud between the Krahn and Gio on Ivorian soil, the government intensified the situation.104 It is very likely at this point that the 97 Interviewed in Guinea, February, 2003, on file with Human Rights Watch. 98 The Krahn forces working with the rebels appear to have been guns for hire. Some of the Krahn fighters told a Western resident of the town that they joined the rebels because “they had nothing better to do and wanted to fight because that was all they knew, having grown up in war and refugee camps.” Human Rights Watch telephone interview, May 22, 2003. 99 Ibid. 100 Interviewed in Guinea, March 2003, on file with Human Rights Watch. 101 Ibid. 102 Human Rights Watch interview, Abidjan, March 25, 2003. 103 “Mort de 4 voluntaires: la Croix-Rouge maintient ses activités dans l’ouest ivoirien,” Agence France Presse, March 19, 2003. Responsibility for the deaths of the humanitarian workers remains unclear. 104 Former Liberian president Samuel Doe was a Krahn from Grand Gedeh county who conspired with Thomas Quiwonkpa, a Gio army sergeant from Nimba county, in the 1980 coup that toppled the Tolbert regime. The two men later became rivals for power. Quiwonkpa returned to Monrovia as the head of the National Patriotic Forces of Liberia (NPFL) in a 1985 coup attempt, but failed and was killed by Doe’s forces. Doe then reacted against supporters of Quiwonkpa, particularly the Gio from Nimba county, who suffered terrible reprisals by the Doe government, as did many other Doe opponents. Doe also cultivated an alliance with members of the Mandingo ethnic group. This background was among the reasons why Charles Taylor received substantial support from Nimba county, particularly from among the Gio and Mano people, and why Human Rights Watch 31 August 2003, Vol. 15, No. 14 (A)