Ivory Coast: Allassane Ouattara Loyalists Accused of Executing 26 People

The forces of new Ivory Coast President Allassane Ouattara have executed 26 people in the last month, the U.N. peacekeeping mission says.

Ouattara, supported by the international community, took power in April when his forces defeated and arrested former President Laurent Gbagbo, who is now under house arrest in the north of the country. At least 3,000 people were killed in the civil war after Gbagbo refused to concede the presidential election last fall.

The human rights representative for the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast, Guillaume Ngefa, said there had been 26 cases of "extrajudicial execution, summary or arbitrary," and "85 cases of arbitrary arrest and illegal detention."

He said the killings took place between July 11 and Aug. 10, and witnesses identified most of the perpetrators as members of Ouattara's army, the Republican Forces of the Ivory Coast.

As the new president took Abidjan in street fighting backed by U.N. and French troops, observers warned that it was not clear who his soldiers were or how they had been recruited.

In July, Amnesty International warned that many Ivorians were still internally displaced People and afraid to return home in fear of reprisals. The organisation called on the Ouattara government to do more to control its supporters.

Ivory Coast was divided between north and south by a rebellion in 2002. The recent conflict reignited regional and ethnic tensions, and most of the killings reported by the U.N. took place in the south and west, an area mostly inhabited by Gbagbo supporters.

The new government has promised that perpetrators from both sides will be prosecuted despite the latest allegations pointing to the contrary.

Military prosecutor Ange Kessi told Agence France-Presse that among the 62 charged over the post-election violence Thursday was Brunot Dogbo Ble, former commander of the Republican Forces, who is so far the only example of an Ouattara supporter being arrested.

Most of those prosecuted face charges of illegal arrest, murder, concealing corpses, rape, theft, insubordination, arbitrary detention, embezzlement and recruiting mercenaries.

On Wednesday, 12 allies of Gbagbo, including his son Michel, were charged with taking part in an armed insurrection and attempting to undermine the state, the BBC reported.