Elizabeth Whitman 2 June 2011 New York — Forces loyal to Ivorian President Alessane Ouattara have carried out indiscriminate torture, rape, extrajudicial killings, and other acts of violence and abuse, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch. Purportedly carried out in retaliation against members of forces loyal to former president Laurent Gbagbo, these abuses and killings were found instead to have been carried out against civilians or unarmed people and were often based upon one's ethnic affiliation or which presidential candidate the victim supposedly backed. In a report released Thursday, Human Rights Watch said that since mid-April, when armed forces loyal to Ouattara, known as the Republican Forces, managed to gain control of the capital city of Abidjan, these forces have killed at least 149 of Gbagbo's "real or perceived" supporters
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Somali government forces and African Union troops pushed al Qaeda-linked militants out of its last outpost in the western part of Mogadishu, opening the main artery to the famed Bakaara Market, the African Union Mission to Somalia said Friday.
