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At least 11 people were killed in intercommunal clashes in an Ivory Coast port city this week as tensions rise ahead of October elections with President Alassane Ouattara seeking a contested third term.
The killings in and around Dabou, west of Abidjan, have fueled concerns that Côte d’Ivoire may revert to the kind of post-election violence that left 3,000 dead in the 2010-2011 crisis.
Local officials reported at least seven dead and 40 others injured this week, but on Friday they said the death toll had risen.
“We have found another body,” local mayor Jean-Claude Yede Niangne told AFP. “That brings the total death toll to 11.”
“Things are quiet this morning. The trucks are moving again. Most of the stores have reopened,” he added.
Locals say tensions flared on Monday with clashes between local Adjoukrou tribe members, considered close to the opposition, and the Dioula from northern Ivory Coast who support Ouattara.
Witnesses said the violence involved armed men using Kalashnikov automatic weapons.
A nightly curfew was ordered in the area until Sunday.
Around 30 people have been killed since August in clashes over the October 31 presidential election, where Ouattara is seeking another term and several opposition candidates have been barred from running.
The Regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) urges opposition parties to reconsider their call to boycott the electoral process and engage their supporters in civil disobedience.
The opposition has left doubts to persist over whether it will reject the vote, urging supporters to boycott the electoral process and the campaign, without actually withdrawing three candidacies.
The boycott calls came after Ouattara, who has ruled the world’s leading cocoa producer for two terms, said he would once again challenge a constitutional limit.
He says a 2016 reform has reset the counter for term limits that allow him to run again, a move the opposition rejects as illegal.
Dozens of potential candidates were barred from running in the elections, including Laurent Gbagbo and former rebel chief Guillaume Soro, who played key roles in the 2010-11 crisis.
