UN peacekeepers attacked in Ivory Coast

Friday 31 December 2010
Samuel Okocha, AfricaNews reporter in Lagos, Nigeria

The United Nations peacekeepers in the West African country, Ivory Coast, fired at by hidden gunmen when a hostile crowd blocked their vehicles. The peacekeepers reportedly fired warning shots in return to disperse the crowd.

"It was a routine patrol that went to Abobo and was blocked by barricades. The patrol lifted the barricades and continued on its route, but was encircled by a crowd that was growing bigger and bigger," AFP quoted spokesman for the United Nations Operation in Cote d' Ivoire [UNOCI], Hamadoun Toure as saying on Thursday.

"They received shots from a building, and that's when we shot in the air, because there was a sort of mob preventing them from moving. So they shot in the air. We did not shoot into the crowd, just so that is clear."

The state media in Ivory Coast was said to have alleged that civilians were wounded when UN peacekeepers [also called blue helmets in Ivory Coast] fired into a crowd in the Abobo district of the main city of Abidjan.

But UN spokesman Toure said "the patrol did not fire on the crowd."

State television RTI which remains loyal to incumbent Laurent Gbagbo had reportedly showed clips of two young men with fresh wounds, saying they were injured due to gun shot from UN patrol.

The head of UNOCI's human rights department, Simon Munzu, said the incident was under investigation but added he was yet to receive reports of casualties.

Source: AfricaNews.
Link: http://www.africanews.com/site/UN_peacekeepers_attacked_in_Ivory_Coast/list_messages/36828.