The Russian Foreign Ministry made on Tuesday an urgent appeal to both sides involved in a civil war in the Ivory Coast to stop the bloodshed and attempt to settle the dispute through peaceful dialogue.
Forces loyal to the country's UN-recognized leader, Alassane Ouattara, began a military offensive last week in an attempt to sweep former President Laurent Gbagbo from power. Gbagbo refuses to leave office, even though the Ivorian electoral commission declared him the loser of presidential elections in December.
"As a result of a sharp escalation of the armed conflict in the Ivory Coast in the past few days, there have been numerous victims among civilians," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"A striking case was the ethnic cleansing in Duekoue in the west of the country, which killed some 800 people."
According to recent reports, UN peacekeepers and the supporting French contingent have become involved in military action on the side of Ouattara.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia had requested an extraordinary UN Security Council briefing to address the direct involvement of UN peacekeepers in a civil war.
"We are studying the legal aspects of the case because the peacekeepers had a mandate that required them to be neutral and impartial," Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow.
"All problems must be resolved by the Africans themselves, without interference from outside," he added.
Ivory Coast's airspace and borders have been temporarily closed. The UN has sent an envoy to investigate the massacre and appealed for an end to the violence. The organization has also announced sanctions against Gbagbo and his entourage.
MOSCOW, April 5 (RIA Novosti)
