UN - 173 killed in Ivory Coast

The United Nations said on Thursday that at least 173 people have been killed and 114 others have gone missing or been tortured following the disputed presidential elections in Cote d'Ivoire. The post-election violence in the country has prompted fears of a return to civil war. At least 471 arrests and detentions have also been recorded between December 16 and 21, according to UN deputy human rights commissioner Kyung-wha Kang, who was speaking to diplomats at a special session on Cote d'Ivoire in Geneva on Thursday. She said the Ivorian government's restrictions on UN personnel were making it "impossible" to investigate all the allegations of human rights abuses, including reports of mass graves. Kang said that the UN special representative of the secretary-general had been "stopped at gunpoint as he sought to verify such allegations". David Kennedy, spokesman for the US mission to the UN in Geneva, said that the US is "deeply concerned by the extent of the abuses being perpetrated" in Cote d'Ivoire.