Scores injured, some die, following air attacks - NGOs

A number of civilians, including children, are reported to have died this week following air attacks in western Cote d'Ivoire, according to NGO and humanitarian sources. Scores of people were evacuated and dozens were being treated in a hospital in Man, a rebel-held town 578 km northwest of the Ivorian commercial capital, Abidjan. Eight die following helicopter attacks - MSF On Thursday, Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) said in a communique that nearly 50 wounded civilians were treated within the space of a few hours on 15 April at a hospital in the rebel-held town of Man. It said its teams expected to receive other wounded in the coming hours. According to MSF the patients, who included nine children, 13 women and elderly persons, said they had been injured during helicopter attacks on the rebel-held towns of Danane and Mahapleu. "Most of the injured had extensive abdominal wounds, open fractures and shattered limbs," MSF said. The surgical team had to do 12 emergency operations including amputations, it said. At least eight persons, including three children, died from their wounds within the hospital compound. The number of civilians who died on the spot during the attacks was unclear. Patients evacuated from Zouan-Houien Also on Thursday 62 people, 45 children and 17 adults, arrived in Abidjan from the town of Zouan-Hounien, near the border with Liberia, on board two helicopters provided by a French force stationed in Cote d'Ivoire. They were evacuated from a Burulli Ulcer Centre run by Catholic priests in the town after the centre’s church was hit by bombs dropped from the air. Zouen-Hounien is located some 671 km northwest of Abidjan, in an area that was under the control of the rebel Mouvement Populaire Ivoirien du Grand Ouest (MPIGO - Ivorian Popular Movement of the Great West). Danane and Mahapleu were also controlled by the rebel group, and was reported to have changed hands on more than one occasion this week. Over seven million CFA francs (US $11,500) worth of medicines and bandages were either stolen by armed men or destroyed during the bombardments, a medical source told IRIN. Fighting was also reported this week in the town of Daloa in the centre west. Violence against civilians outside rebel zones - MSF MSF said "other cases of violence against civilians are regularly observed by our teams in the field in our programmes of assistance to displaced persons around Daloa, Duekoue and Guiglo". The three towns, located in the centre west and far west, are controlled by forces loyal to the government of President Laurent Gbagbo. "In the face of these attacks and their consequences for the victims, MSF is alarmed at the non-protection of civilian populations who, in no case should be deliberately targeted," the NGO said, urging all parties to the conflict to respect civilian populations and do everything possible to protect medical facilities, equipment and staff.