Two Burkinabe killed in latest ethnic clashes in west

Two Burkinabe immigrants have been killed and at least seven others have been seriously wounded in machete attacks by youths of the local Guere tribe in the government-controlled town of Duekoue in western Cote d'Ivoire, hospital and police officials said on Wednesday. The attacks occurred on Tuesday and early on Wednesday morning despite the presence of French peacekeeping troops in the small town 500 km northwest of the commercial capital Abidjan. These assaults represent the latest in a series of bloody clashes between Guere tribesmen and settlers from Burkina Faso, Mali and other parts of Cote d'Ivoire. They were triggered by the outbreak of civil war in September 2003. A ceasefire between rebels occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire and forces loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo has held firm along the frontline since May last year, but sporadic outbreaks of ethnic violence between armed civilians have continued to spill blood regularly in the "Wild West." Dr Richard Kore, the head surgeon at Duekoue hospital, told IRIN by telephone that eight Burkinabe with machete wounds to the head had been admitted to hospital following the first attack on Tuesday and one of them had subsequently died of his injuries. Another Burkinabe had been found dead with his throat sliced open in the early hours of Wednesday morning, he added. An officer of the paramilitary gendarmerie in Duekoue told IRIN that 12 people had been hurt in Tuesday's attack, of whom eight had required hospital treatment. The prefect of Duekoue said 11 people had been injured, all of them Burkinabe. Colonel Bruno Misset, the spokesman of the 4,000-strong French peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire, said: "It was an ethnic clash between Gueres and Burkinabes. Some (Guere) youths said they recognised a Burkinabe who had taken part in attacks near Guiglo (32 km to the southeast)." Immigrants from other West African countries comprised 30 percent of Cote d'Ivoire's 16 million population before the outbreak of civil war, but about half a million half have fled back to Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali since the conflict began to avoid persecution in the government-held south of the country. Duekoue is close to the frontline with the rebel-held north and ethnic tension there has been aggravated by land disputes. Many of the immigrants established cocoa and coffee plantations but never received formal title to their land from which several Guere communities are now trying to expel them. At least 35 people, mainly Burkinabe, were killed in a series of ethnic clashes in villages near Bangolo, just to the north of Duekoue, in late December and early January. The latest killings took place as the UN special rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia, Doudou Diene, was touring Cote d'Ivoire to investigate persistent reports of ethnic persecution in the country. He was due to conclude his 12-day visit on Friday.