ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Authorities in Ivory Coast must put an end to what Amnesty International claims is a wave of arbitrary arrests and abuse targeting opposition supporters in the run-up to a presidential election later this month, the rights campaigner said yesterday.
Ivorians go to the polls on October 25 in the first presidential vote since a post-election civil war killed over 3,000 people in 2011.
President Alassane Ouattara, who faces a fractured opposition, is heavily favoured to win a second five-year term in a poll meant to draw a line under the crisis years and cement the West African nation’s rapid post-war economic revival.
In a statement, Amnesty said around 60 opposition supporters have been arrested since mid-September. At least 30 are still being detained, it said.
“As the elections approach, the authorities must stop the harassment maneuvers and continual intimidation that political opposition supporters are subject to,” Amnesty West Africa researcher Francois Patuel said.
Government spokesman Bruno Kone was not immediately available to comment on Amnesty’s accusations. However, he denied similar allegations of arbitrary arrests made by opposition leaders last month and stated that the authorities were within their rights to detain anyone responsible for inciting violence.
