The government and UN are blaming each other for security lapses at a displaced people’s camp.

The United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Côte d’Ivoire, UNOCI and the country’s government have blamed each other for security lapses that led to the killing of 11 displaced people in a camp near the western town of Duékoué on Friday July 20. According to official sources, the attack also led to the destruction of the camp.

While the Ivorian government claimed the camp at Nahibly has been protected since its creation by the UN, UNOCI on its part rejects responsibility for protecting the camp. Radio France Internationale, RFI reported that most of the camp’s inhabitants fled into nearby bushes after the attack with only 600 of the 5,000 population taking refuge in the Duékoué Mayor’s office. The camp, the country's only remaining facility for those displaced from last year's war, is managed by the United Nations and partner agencies.

In a statement read on State radio and television on Saturday July 21, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence, explained that the attack was in response to a deadly robbery in the Kokoma neighbourhood of Duékoué on July 19 in which four people died. The camp is reportedly inhabited mostly by ethnic Malinke people who are said to be supporters of President Alassane Ouattara. According to Major Alla Kouakou, the angry crowd overwhelmed Ivorian soldiers, para-military gendarmes, policemen and UN troops.

The camp’s residents had fled there during last year's post-election crisis sparked by disagreements over election results between former President Laurent Gbagbo and current leader Alassane Ouattara. The largely Guere people who lived in Nahibly are considered to be pro-Gbagbo, Reuters news agency said.

Long prone to serious ethnic tensions based on land disputes, the west of Côte d’Ivoire remains the most unstable part of the country more than a year after the end of the post-electoral crisis of December 2010 to April 2011 that claimed some 3,000 lives, including hundreds in the Duekoue region, said Al Jazeera Television. Several villages came under attack in early June south of Duekoue, close to the border with Liberia with more than 20 people killed, including seven UN peacekeeping troops from Niger.