Ivory Coast on Brink of Human Rights Catastrophe

Months after disputed presidential elections in Cote D’Ivoire, the country seems to move towards the final showdown. Hundreds of thousands of people have already fled the spreading crisis, and the new escalation is likely to displace more people or put them at risk of being caught in the crossfire.


With violence escalating and forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara advancing toward the Ivory Coast capital of Abedjan, Amnesty International warned today that the capital city faces a human rights and humanitarian catastrophe and urged the international community to protect civilians. We have learned of retribution attacks and uncontrolled armed elements looting and burning homes and shooting civilians in the west.

Salvatore Saguès, Amnesty International’s researcher on West Africa, made the following statement:

Abidjan is on the brink of a human right catastrophe and total chaos. Côte d’Ivoire is facing a major humanitarian crisis. The parties to the conflict must immediately stop targeting the civilian population. The international community must take immediate steps to protect the civilian population.

Since the beginning of the week, the Republican Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara have launched a general offensive against the forces loyal to outgoing president Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to cede power.
As the Republican forces advance in the west and in the center of the country, violence has escalated.

Flashpoint Guiglo
A recent flashpoint has been in the town of Guiglo, 372 miles west of Abidjan, where sources have told us that uncontrolled armed elements loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, including Liberian mercenaries, burned and looted houses, and shot and wounded several civilians yesterday.

The escalation of this conflict, and increased reliance on mercenaries and untrained recruits, means there is a huge and immediate risk of massive human rights violations in the coming days as the Republican Forces advance on Abidjan-Salvatore Saguès.

On March 19, Gbagbo’s minister for youth Charles Blé Goudé, called on Gbagbo’s Young Patriot movement members to volunteer as militiamen to ‘liberate’ the country. The Young Patriots have announced that they have recruited 20,000 soldiers.

We are calling on both sides of the conflict to strictly abide by international humanitarian law and take all necessary precautions to protect civilians.

This entry was posted in Africa and tagged , , by Christoph Koettl. Bookmark the permalink.

About Christoph Koettl

Christoph Koettl is the Emergency Response Manager at Amnesty International USA and works on urgent human rights situations such as armed conflicts. In his work he focuses on exploring the intersection of technology and human rights, specializing in utilizing satellite imagery or citizen video for human rights research and advocacy. He previously worked and studied in Austria, the Netherlands and Italy and holds an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His expertise is in International Humanitarian Law, conflict analysis, crisis mapping, video validation and social media forensics and he is a regular speaker on technology and human rights. He has testified on war crimes in Sri Lanka before the United States Congress and his work is covered regularly by numerous national and international media, including Associated Press, BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera and Reuters.
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10 thoughts on “Ivory Coast on Brink of Human Rights Catastrophe

  1. La communauté internationale a laissé pourrir une situation q'elle aurait pu régler si elle avait été ferme dès le début de la crise peut-être parce que la Côte-d'Ivoire n'a pas de pétrole. Tout faire pour le respect des droits humains; qu'est devenu le droit d'ingérence humanitaire?

  2. La communauté internationale a laissé pourrir une situation q’elle aurait pu régler si elle avait été ferme dès le début de la crise peut-être parce que la Côte-d’Ivoire n’a pas de pétrole. Tout faire pour le respect des droits humains; qu’est devenu le droit d’ingérence humanitaire?

  3. Agreed with Kamara. Let it be said that until the FRCI started moving to liberate Abidjan, Amnesty International was mum on the situation. I repeatedly checked their website and there was no mention of teh conflict, of the 500 people that Gbagbo had already killed while the international commmunity just saw and watched. SHAME ON YOU AMNESTY, you have lost the respect of many. And no we will not help you with fundraisers. Funds will go to organizations who have benl helping the people of Cote d'Ivoire throughout. Mark my words.

  4. Agreed with Kamara. Let it be said that until the FRCI started moving to liberate Abidjan, Amnesty International was mum on the situation. I repeatedly checked their website and there was no mention of teh conflict, of the 500 people that Gbagbo had already killed while the international commmunity just saw and watched. SHAME ON YOU AMNESTY, you have lost the respect of many. And no we will not help you with fundraisers. Funds will go to organizations who have benl helping the people of Cote d’Ivoire throughout. Mark my words.

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  6. Howdy! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a group of volunteers and starting a new project in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us beneficial information to work on. You have done a wonderful job!

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