[Dawn] Eight civilians died in southwestern Ivory Coast in the attack that killed seven UN peacekeepers, the United Nations...Parkinson's Law on an international scale...
said Saturday.
"As per our information, at least eight non-combatants were killed, including a woman," Anouk Desgroseilliers, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told AFP.
She added that Friday's simultaneous raids on several villages near the town of Tai close to the Liberian border sparked an "immediate" exodus.
"Hundreds of people have arrived in Tai, and one can imagine that thousands of others are on the road," she said. "Thirty-five families have crossed the border" into Liberia, she added.
The UN peacekeepers from Niger killed in an ambush on Friday had been patrolling in an area between two villages after hearing rumours of an imminent attack on communities in the region.
Ivory Coast's west, by far the most unstable part of the country, has been plagued by deadly attacks since a political and military crisis that started at the end of 2010 and left some 3,000 people dead throughout the country.
It was the biggest loss suffered by the 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast since it was first deployed in 2004 in the country divided following an unsuccessful coup against then president Laurent Gbagbo.
... Former President-for-Life of Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2011. Laurent lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and he refused to vacate the presidential palace. French troops assisted the Oattara forces in extricating him from his Fuhrerbunker...
Desgroseilliers said aid workers from the International Committee of the Red Thingy, the Danish Refugee Council and local groups were on site to assist those displaced, including supplying food and water.
OCHA was trying to coordinate the response to the situation with local authorities, she added.