The UN has said more than 100 bodies have been discovered in Ivory Coast in the last 24 hours, many of them burned alive, after two mass killings.
Around 60 were killed in one incident and 40 in another that appeared to have been carried out by Liberian mercenaries and are believed to have been 'ethnically motivated'.
Many of the victims had been burned alive, but others had died after being thrown down a well.
Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: 'All the incidents appear at least partly ethnically motivated.'
He added that there were reports of 'smaller-scale killings in other places that have yet to be investigated'.
It comes after Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara called for EU sanctions on the country's main ports to be lifted on national television.
Making one of his first speeches since the election, Mr Ouattara said the violent standoff caused by the defiance of Laurent Gbagbo to hand over power has plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis.
Speaking on LCI, he said: 'I have asked that European Union sanctions on the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro and certain public entities, be lifted.
'I have also asked the central bank BCEAO to reopen its branches in Ivory Coast, to ensure a resumption of operations in all banks so as to enable the payment of salaries and arrears in the shortest possible time.'
Mr Ouatarra, internationally recognised as the winner of the presidential election, has said his forces will not go into Gbagbo's presidential mansion to capture him.
Armed forces have surrounded Gbagbo's mansion in Abidjan, where he is believed to be holed up in a bunker, and have said they will wait until he runs out of food and water.
But Gbagbo has remained defiant, insisting he won the election in November and stressing he will not leave the country he has ruled for the last 10 years.
Toussaint Alain, a spokesman in Europe, said: 'I reached the head of state and his wife less than an hour ago and no - he will not surrender. President Gbagbo will not cede.
'It's a question of principle. President Gbagbo is not a monarch. He is not a king. He is a president elected by his people.'
Darasa 45: Maisha yetu kama zoezi la matofali
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Darasa linakukumbusha kuwa...… Watu watatu ni mimi na wewe. Watu kumi ni
mimi na wewekwa sababu kuna watu tumesimama nyuma yao. Lakini pia, ni watu
wetu ...
1 year ago
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