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The Forces Nouvelles have also attacked and killed
civilians suspected of supporting the government or ruling political party,
enemy combatants and officials and, more recently, suspected rivals and their
supporters in clashes between two rebel factions. In 2002-2003 Liberian and
Sierra Leonean fighters allied to the MPIGO and MJP committed numerous abuses
against civilians in the west, including killings, rape, and systematic looting
of civilian property. All Ivoiran rebel factions have frequently recruited and
used child combatants.6
The New Forces presently exercise military, economic, and administrative
control over some fifty percent of the country. Several notable incidents
involving rebel factions are as follows:
MPCI forces summarily executed over fifty gendarmes and members
of their families in Bouaké in October 2002, and executed dozens of other
government officials, government supporters, and members of civilian
self-defense committees in other locations in the north and west.
Members of the Ivorian rebel groups and Liberian recruits allied
to the MPIGO group were responsible for the summary executions of dozens of
Ivorian civilians in the west, including at least forty civilians killed in Dah
village in March 2003.
In 2002-2003 Liberian fighters linked to the former government in
Liberia of Charles Taylor and allied to the MPIGO rebel groups systematically
looted the property of civilians around Danané, Zouan-Hounien, and Toulepleu
and committed numerous executions and other serious acts of violence against civilians.
Some 100 people were allegedly executed or died in detention in
and around Korhogo in June 2004 during clashes between supporters of rebel
leader Guillaume Soro and rival counterpart Ibrahim Coulibaly.
[6] See “Trapped
Between Two Wars,” pp. 24-41.
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