At least 10 Malians, including a Muslim cleric, have been killed in violence in Côte d’Ivoire’s main city, Abidjan, since the Ivorian army quashed an anti-government demonstration there last week, an official said in Mali on Thursday.
”As of today’s date, we number 10 dead, most of them shot, including one imam,” said the official, adding that the toll was provisional.
”These people were shot dead because they were foreigners, and more specifically Malians,” said the source.
Several more Malians were injured when the Côte d’Ivoire security forces, acting on orders from President Laurent Gbagbo, cracked down on an anti-government demonstration last Thursday, and others were reported missing, the source said.
Rights groups in Côte d’Ivoire have alleged that ”massive sweeps, abductions, summary executions, widespread destruction, torture and extortion” took place after the aborted demonstration, called by the opposition to press Gbagbo to respect a 14-month-old peace pact.
The press in Mali has said that, officially, seven Malians were killed in the unrest.
But one newspaper quoted Malian expatriates in Abidjan as saying the death toll for nationals from Côte d’Ivoire’s landlocked northern neighbour could exceed 60.
On Monday, Malian political grouping African Solidarity for Democracy and Independence (Sadi) said dozens of Malians were summarily executed in a sweep by Ivorian security forces following the demonstration.
Many Malians were killed on Friday at a mosque in Abobo, a working-class district of Abidjan, the group said, adding that many more had gone missing.
Sadi, in a statement released in Bamako, condemned ”killings and persecutions of Malians” and charged that police stations in Abidjan had become ”centers for summary executions”.
The group demanded that Gbagbo be prosecuted in an international court of law.
Last Thursday in Abidjan, security forces and soldiers, on orders from Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, quashed the protest, deploying tanks, helicopters and fighter jets, and sparking fierce running battles with demonstrators.
Police have said 37 people were killed, but both the political opposition and an independent human rights group set the death toll in the hundreds.
The Malian government on Monday issued a communique saying it was ”deeply concerned for the safety of its many nationals” in Côte d’Ivoire. — Sapa-AFP