Extrajudicial killings by Ouattara’s forces

Human Rights Watch has a harrowing new report on killings in Cote d’Ivoire immediately preceding and following Gbagbo’s arrest.  Below are excerpts related to killings by Ouattara’s men, as killings by Gbagbo’s forces are more well known.

• Ouattara’s Republican Forces of Côte d’Ivoire (Forces Républicaines de la Côte d’Ivoire, FRCI) killed at least 95 unarmed people in Abidjan during operations in late April and May, when they sealed off and searched areas formerly controlled by pro-Gbagbo militia
• Most killings were point-blank executions of youth from ethnic groups generally aligned with Gbagbo, in what appeared to be collective punishment for these groups’ participation in Gbagbo’s militias.
• …[M]id- and high-level commanders had been at or near the place where some killings took place.
• Nearly every former  detainee [of the Republican Forces] described being struck repeatedly with guns, belts, rope, and fists to extract information on where weapons were hidden or to punish them for alleged participation in the Young Patriots, a pro-Gbagbo militia group.
• The Republican Forces also killed older men accused of housing or assisting the militia.

h/t to John Campbell’s blog.