IVORY COAST: Hundreds of people fled into Liberia over the weekend as fighting intensified between Liberian rebels and the Ivorians they had been battling alongside, Liberian security sources said yesterday.
The cross-border conflict involves shaky alliances of rebel groups, regular forces, mercenaries and tribal militias from Liberia and Ivory Coast and is complicating civil wars in both West African countries.
Civilians fleeing the area have reported scores dead in massacres, widespread rape and villages looted and burned.
"As of 8 a.m., people were hearing heavy gunfire from Danane," a Liberian security source said. "It is still going on." About 1,000 people, mainly women and children, crossed into Liberia from the area around the rebel-held Ivorian town of Danane to escape the fighting over the weekend, the source said.
The BBC World Service reported that the Red Cross in Danane had buried 52 Liberian fighters who they found killed, with their hands tied. The Red Cross could not immediately confirm the report.
Ivorian rebel commander Ousmane Coulibaly said he had heard the report and said he was going to Danane to look into it.
"To my knowledge, we have gathered them (the Liberians) together in one place and they are there and in good health," he said.
Hundreds of Liberians, hardened by years of conflict at home, formed a key part of the fighting force for two rebel factions that grabbed chunks of western Ivory Coast in November.
A French-brokered peace deal is moving forward to end the war that blew up in the world's top cocoa producer after a failed coup last September. But the presence of Liberians fighting on both sides in the west is one of the main obstacles.
Security sources in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, said clashes broke out between the former allies in western Ivory Coast this week after Ivorian rebels asked the Liberians to hand over rocket-propelled grenade launchers. - (Reuters)