YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast, May 10 (UPI) -- Almost 200 people were killed last week by Ivorian militias and Liberian mercenaries loyal to the former Ivorian president, the Ivorian government said.
A statement from the Ivorian Defense Ministry signed by Prime Minister Guillaume Soro said the fighters fled the commercial capital Abidjan and went on a killing spree last week.
"The last fighters in the pay of the former president, Laurent Gbagbo, were mercenaries from Liberia and Ivory Coast militia," the BBC quoted the statement as saying.
The ministry added that most of the victims were singled out for ethnic reasons or because they lived in parts of country typically considered supportive of Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara.
Ouattara squared off against the incumbent Gbagbo in November elections. The international community recognized Ouattara as the victor, though Gbagbo refused to step down. He was arrested in April, though as many as 3,000 people were killed in the four-month conflict that followed the election.
U.N. officials earlier this week said they uncovered a series of mass graves in a district of Abidjan that contained 68 bodies.
Ouattara was sworn in as president of Ivory Coast last week.
