20110510
reuters

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - In a muddy slum at the edge of Ivory Coast's main city, palm leaves stuck in reddish mounds of earth mark the mass graves of locals killed by rampaging gunmen.

Buried there are 68 bodies of President Alassane Ouattara's Dioula tribespeople, killed by militiamen loyal to his rival, Laurent Gbagbo, just hours after his overthrow on April 11, residents of the Yopougon district of Abidjan say.

"There are 29 people buried just in that one," said Ibrahim Bakayoko, 62, a local leader, walking over to a conspicuously large grave -- 3-4 metres (yards) square -- with a small bunch of flowers at its centre.

"The day after Gbagbo fell, the militiamen came here and went door to door, dragging the Dioula out and executing them."

Formerly a soccer pitch, the graves, flanked by rows of ramshackle houses peppered with bullet holes in the part of Yopougon known as Doukoure, attest to the recent violence.

Faced with the sheer number of bodies, and unable to venture too far for fear of falling victim themselves, Yopougon locals had no choice but to create impromptu cemeteries.

Once-prosperous Ivory Coast is counting the toll from the power struggle between Gbagbo and Ouattara that lasted nearly five months, killing at least 3,000, uprooting over a million and choking vital cocoa exports.

The mass graves underscore the challenge Ouattara faces in reconciling a country bitterly divided by disputes over land, national identity and blood -- divisions the November 28 election was intended to heal once and for all.