Nigeria lashes at world's focus on Libya while I.Coast burns

(AFP) – 14 hours ago

ABUJA — 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 the international community with watching while hundreds of people were murdered in Ivory Coast since the disputed November 28 election.
"The contradictions between principle and national interest that seem to be at core of international law and politics -- have enabled the international community to impose a no-fly zone over Libya ostensibly to protect innocent civilians from slaughter, but to watch seemingly helplessly as seven innocent civilian women and hundreds of other men, women and children (were) slaughtered in equally, even if less egregious violence," he said according to a prepared copy of his speech.
"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 (ECOWAS) which has threatened the use of force if Laurent Gbagbo does not step down in favour of the internationally recognised leader 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.
His latest comments come just days before a regular ECOWAS summit to take place in Abuja on Wednesday and Thursday where the Ivory Coast crisis is expected to dominate the agenda.
An ECOWAS court on Friday temporarily restrained the bloc from using force in the cocoa producing nation after a lawsuit filed on behalf of Gbagbo.
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".