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Côte d'Ivoire

Cote d'Ivoire: Fear paralyses Ivorian cocoa town after killings

By Loucoumane Coulibaly

ABIDJAN, June 1 (Reuters) - Cocoa trade in Ivory Coast's western town of Duekoue ground to a halt on Wednesday after at least 41 people were killed overnight in the latest bout of ethnic bloodletting in the region.

Shops and warehouses were closed, trucks locked up and workers told to go home, farmers said.

The area around Duekoue produces about a quarter of the cocoa that comes from the world's top grower. It is a tinderbox of decades-old tribal rivalries between local villagers and farmers from other parts of Ivory Coast or neighbouring countries, most of whom work on cocoa plantations.

An army commander said a dusk-to-dawn curfew would be imposed from 1900 GMT on Wednesday.

"For the moment, it's the security of my children and my wife I'm interested in and not cocoa," Mamadou Cherif, a farmer on the outskirts of Duekoue, told Reuters.

"Our cooperative, Cojad, has left all its vehicles in town and told the workers to go home. We have taken refuge in town. There's no work going on at the moment," he said.

"Nobody can take the risk of going into the bush. There's no commerce, shops have been shut since yesterday. The town is dead. We have the impression that there's no authority here."

The army and witnesses said armed men attacked local Guere villagers overnight, killing 41 of them and wounding 64. The victims were shot dead, knifed or burnt.

Mamadou Kone, another farmer in Duekoue, said he had fled his plantation for fear of reprisals by the Guere.

"It's a terrible situation. I'm worried that there will be a civil war between civilians. I don't know what is being reserved for us after dark," he said.

Like Cherif, Kone is from Ivory Coast's north -- which has been under rebel control since a civil war erupted in September 2002. Local villagers and pro-government western militias accuse northern Ivorians of supporting the rebels.

"I left my plantation to take refuge in town where I have a small house. A lot of farmers also fled the bush fearing retaliation attacks. You would have to be mad to go to your farm now," Kone said.