Laurent Gbagbo’s disputeof the results of the second round of the presidential election held on November 28, 2010 has created a political crisis accompanied by violence and repression on the part of Security Forces loyal to the outgoing president. On January 25, 2011, the death toll was of at least 260 people, mainly followers of Alassane Ouattara. Summary executions and extra-judicial killings have been perpetrated, hundreds have been injured, dozens of cases of enforced disappearances, hundreds of documented cases of torture and ill-treatment, and hundreds of arrests,arbitrary detentions and allegations of sexual crimes have been reported, according to independent Ivorian human rights NGOs and the UN Human Rights High Commissioner. At least three mass graves are said tohave been located, including in N’Dotré (on the outskirts of Abidjan, behind the civil prison MACA), and recently in Issia near Daloa (central-west), but this information could not be confirmed by independent sources because independent human rights NGOs and the UN have been prevented from reaching the sites by the pro-Gbagbo forces.
FIDH analyses human rights violations from the field and makes recommendations to Ivorian political actors, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU), and more broadly speaking to the international community to help resolve the political crisis while respecting human rights and international humanitarian law, and the inalienable right of Ivorians to choose their leaders freely.