ABUJA (AFP) – Nigeria which has led a campaign to force out Ivory Coast's strongman on Monday lashed out at "contradictions" by world powers focusing attention on Libya while the West African nation is burning.
Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia charged at the international community for watching while hundreds of thousands of people were murdered in Ivory Coast since the disputed November 28 election.
"The contradictions between principle and national interest seem to be at the core of international law and politics and have enabled the international community to impose a no-fly zone over Libya ostensibly to protect innocent civilians from being slaughtered," Ajumogobia said.
"But this same international community watches helplessly while seven innocent women were slaughtered in Cote'd'Ivoire and 400,000 others have been murdered.
"These contradictions are impossible for us to ignore," he said while commissioning his ministry's new office block in the capital Abuja.
The west African regional powerhouse Nigeria chairs the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States which has threatened the use of force if Laurent Gbagbo does not step down in favour of the internationally recognised Alassane Ouattara.
Ajumogobia last month said the UN must endorse any use of force to remove Gbagbo, adding that a total blockade was an option if peaceful efforts fail.
The United Nations estimates at least 440 people have already died in the violence during the nearly four-month stalemate.
The crisis in Ivory Coast has deteriorated in recent weeks amid fears of a civil war as forces loyal to Ouattara advanced seizing a fifth town in the west of the country on Monday while Gbagbo swelled his army's ranks with new recruits.
Pressure is mounting on the 10,000-strong UN mission in Ivory Coast to take stronger action to enforce its mandate to protect civilians, who are bearing the brunt of the deadly tug-of-war for the presidency and fleeing the violence in their thousands.
Their work has been hindered by open hostility from Gbagbo's camp which has demanded its departure, accusing the mission of supporting Ouattara and denouncing the mission in state media as "enemies of Ivory Coast".
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