Thousands dead in Ivory Coast

The situation in the Ivory Coast has deteriorated, after two rebel factions have stepped up their campaign in the west of the country. Since the civil war started on 19th September, thousands of people have been killed and several hundred thousand have been forced to leave their homes.

Troops from Liberia and Burkina Faso are reported to have been involved in a massacre in Neka, in the south-west of the country, in which hundreds of people were killed last weekend.

The rebels from the mainly Moslem north of the Ivory Coast, formerly the world’s main supplier of cocoa before the fighting began, accuse the President, Laurent Gbagbo, of discriminating against them and insist that he resign.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru