UN investigators have found 118 bodies in the past 24 hours in western Ivory Coast including some who appeared to have been burnt alive in ethnically driven attacks, the human rights office says.
The fresh evidence of massacres came on Friday as United Nations relief agencies called for humanitarian corridors to secure aid access to tens of thousands of people throughout the violence-hit West African country.
They also warned of the risk of mass outbreaks of disease including cholera in Abidjan, which was locked in a "human tragedy" with water cut off despite a lull, a senior UN aid official in the city told AFP.
Elsewhere meanwhile, UN investigators were "finding more bodies every day", High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, including a woman with a baby strapped to her back.
"The reports that the UN human rights team in Cote d'Ivoire are sending back are utterly horrifying," she added in a statement.
"Yesterday alone, they found 118 bodies in the three towns of Duekoue, Blolequin and Guiglo in the west of the country.
"The situation in Abidjan is also appalling - and because of the continued fighting and extreme insecurity we have been unable to assess the full extent of the violations there in recent days," Pillay said.
Rupert Colville, spokesman for Pillay, told journalists: "All the incidents appear to have been at least partly ethnically motivated." The killings are thought to have taken place in the last days of March.
"Some of the victims seem to have been burned alive and some corpses thrown down a well," he added.
The discovery followed earlier evidence of at least two other incidents last month in the area of Duekoue, including a mass grave containing nearly 200 bodies, according to UN officials.
"I think one has to be a little bit cautious of assigning responsibilities," Colville cautioned, underlining that the violent standoff between of presidential rivals Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara was complicated by ethnic tensions in the region.
Humanitarian sources speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that UN peacekeeping troops were in the immediate area when killings took place last month and had not intervened.
In a statement, the UN mission in Ivory Coast underlined that it would seek to apply its mandate everywhere.
"The same strong measures will be applied wherever heavy weapons are used against civilian populations, in accordance with resolution 1975," it added.
A UN spokeswoman in Geneva, Corinne Momal-Vanian, said the mission's resources were "stretched to the limit".
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organisation warned of the threat of mass outbreaks of disease, including the risk of a resurgence of a deadly cholera outbreak in Abidjan.
"Water has been cut for four days now in Abidjan. Throughout the city, it started area by area," Carlos Geha, representative of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Ivory Coast, told AFP by phone from Abidjan.
UN relief agencies appealed for humanitarian corridors in the country to ensure safe access to thousands who have fled and ease aid deliveries from Liberia and Ghana.
"We need to have a security situation that permits our trucks to get through," explained Emilia Casella, a spokeswoman for the UN's World Food Program.
About 150,000 Ivorians have sought refuge in 12 West African countries, including 135,000 in Liberia, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.
Pillay welcomed Ouattara's pledge to move for reconciliation.
"The first priority is to do everything possible to stop further killings and violations," Pillay said.
"But equally important is to end impunity in Cote d'Ivoire," she said, repeating a warning to Ouattara and Gbagbo that they may be held accountable for their supporters' acts of violence.
The fresh evidence of massacres came on Friday as United Nations relief agencies called for humanitarian corridors to secure aid access to tens of thousands of people throughout the violence-hit West African country.
They also warned of the risk of mass outbreaks of disease including cholera in Abidjan, which was locked in a "human tragedy" with water cut off despite a lull, a senior UN aid official in the city told AFP.
Elsewhere meanwhile, UN investigators were "finding more bodies every day", High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, including a woman with a baby strapped to her back.
"The reports that the UN human rights team in Cote d'Ivoire are sending back are utterly horrifying," she added in a statement.
"Yesterday alone, they found 118 bodies in the three towns of Duekoue, Blolequin and Guiglo in the west of the country.
"The situation in Abidjan is also appalling - and because of the continued fighting and extreme insecurity we have been unable to assess the full extent of the violations there in recent days," Pillay said.
Rupert Colville, spokesman for Pillay, told journalists: "All the incidents appear to have been at least partly ethnically motivated." The killings are thought to have taken place in the last days of March.
"Some of the victims seem to have been burned alive and some corpses thrown down a well," he added.
The discovery followed earlier evidence of at least two other incidents last month in the area of Duekoue, including a mass grave containing nearly 200 bodies, according to UN officials.
"I think one has to be a little bit cautious of assigning responsibilities," Colville cautioned, underlining that the violent standoff between of presidential rivals Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara was complicated by ethnic tensions in the region.
Humanitarian sources speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that UN peacekeeping troops were in the immediate area when killings took place last month and had not intervened.
In a statement, the UN mission in Ivory Coast underlined that it would seek to apply its mandate everywhere.
"The same strong measures will be applied wherever heavy weapons are used against civilian populations, in accordance with resolution 1975," it added.
A UN spokeswoman in Geneva, Corinne Momal-Vanian, said the mission's resources were "stretched to the limit".
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organisation warned of the threat of mass outbreaks of disease, including the risk of a resurgence of a deadly cholera outbreak in Abidjan.
"Water has been cut for four days now in Abidjan. Throughout the city, it started area by area," Carlos Geha, representative of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Ivory Coast, told AFP by phone from Abidjan.
UN relief agencies appealed for humanitarian corridors in the country to ensure safe access to thousands who have fled and ease aid deliveries from Liberia and Ghana.
"We need to have a security situation that permits our trucks to get through," explained Emilia Casella, a spokeswoman for the UN's World Food Program.
About 150,000 Ivorians have sought refuge in 12 West African countries, including 135,000 in Liberia, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.
Pillay welcomed Ouattara's pledge to move for reconciliation.
"The first priority is to do everything possible to stop further killings and violations," Pillay said.
"But equally important is to end impunity in Cote d'Ivoire," she said, repeating a warning to Ouattara and Gbagbo that they may be held accountable for their supporters' acts of violence.
