Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo

Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo continues to remain in power despite the cries of human rights abuses in Ivory Coast arising out of political uncertainty.

The U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights, Kyung-wha Kang, has declared that human rights officers, “have substantiated allegations of 173 killings, 90 instances of torture and ill treatment, 471 arrests and detentions and 24 cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances,” between the last Thursday and Tuesday.

She has also alleged that the special representative of the Secretary-General has been stopped at gun point while investigating the human rights abuse cases.

Violence erupted after the November 28th Presidential elections. The ruling President believes that he won the elections, while the Election Commission picked opposition leader Alassane Ouattara as the winner. President Gbago derives strength from the ruling of the Constitutional Council that over ruled the Election Commission ruling.

Gbago claims that Ouattara and his followers are no longer a peaceful opposition and they have attacked soldiers’ with weapons. Charles Ble Goude, the nation’s youth minister under Gbagbo acknowledges that the situation is “very very difficult to live in”. But he condemns the U.N report as it only points out to the ruling government.

However, Kang accuses the ruling government responsible for “illegal detentions, nightly arrests and disappearances.”