Ivory Coast violence may have claimed almost 200 lives, says US envoy

UN human rights council in Geneva told of credible reports of killings and torture in violence sparked by disputed election

by David Smith and Reuters

Nearly 200 people may have been killed in Ivory Coast in political violence sparked by last month's disputed election, the US said today.

Eyewitness accounts of death squads abducting opposition sympathisers have emerged from the west African country since President Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to give up power.

At a special session of the UN human rights council in Geneva, American ambassador Betty E King said: "We have credible reports that almost 200 people may have already been killed, with dozens more tortured or mistreated, and others have been snatched from their home in the middle of the night."

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