The Ivory Coast’s former warlord will receive a life sentence during the Duekoue massacre in 2011
A court in Abidjan on Thursday sentenced life warriors to former warlord Amade Oueremi for his part in massacres in March 2011 on the western Ivory Coast where hundreds were killed.
Oueremi had faced 24 charges of mass murder, rape and inhuman and degrading treatment of violence in Duekoue, which occurred while Côte d’Ivoire was in the grip of a post-election civil war.
The Red Cross says 817 people were killed in one day in Duekoue, while the UN sets the toll at 300.
Oueremi’s lawyer said he did not deny the massacres but was led by rebel leaders.
Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa-producing western region was hit hardest during the crisis following the 2010-11 election.
Then President Laurent Gbagbo was eventually forced to leave office after refusing to accept the defeat of the current president, Alassane Ouattara.
The month-long conflict claimed about 3,000 lives and divided the country along north-south lines.
Oueremi, 57, was the leader of a militia that fought alongside pro-Ouattara rebels against rival groups and forces loyal to Gbagbo, who has also been accused of atrocities.
According to the UN and other international organizations, the capture of Duekoue in March 2011 was accompanied by pro-Ouattara fighters of large-scale massacres.
The trial began on March 24 and has mainly shown testimonies from women who said that their husbands and other relatives were brutally killed in front of them.
( Jowharwith AFP)
