A US-based human rights group, Human Rights Watch (HRW) on June 6, 2012 revealed that militant supporters of ex-Ivorian leader Laurent Gbabgo are been backed financially by some persons in Ghana believed to be supporters of the ousted former president, Laurent Gbagbo, to attack civilians in Ivory Coast largely supporters of President Alassane Ouattara.

The group’s revelation was based on interviews it had with some of the pro-Gbagbo forces who are launching deadly raids on villages across the border in Ivory Coast from Liberia.

Thousands of Liberian gunmen fought alongside Ivorian fighters in the four-month post-election conflict in Ivory Coast last year, most in support of former President Laurent Gbagbo, and withdrew to Liberia after Gbagbo’s capture in April 2011.

Two Ivorians and one Liberian who had fought with pro-Gbagbo forces told the HRW that they were receiving outside financial support for attacks into Côte d’Ivoire.

According to the human rights watchdog report, a 30-year-old from western Côte d’Ivoire, who fought with Gbagbo militia groups during the crisis, said that, in their effort to recruit and mobilize, “we are receiving support from [people in] Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, and Ghana.”

Two other former combatants, one Ivorian and one Liberian, also specifically mentioned receiving money from people in Ghana even though those interviewed would not provide the names of their financiers, the HRW stated.

However, a 35-year-old former non-commissioned officer in the Ivorian military, now a refugee in Liberia, said, “Former fighters and former Ivorian politicians are all key players in these activities, making money and other resources available.”

The scale of the support was unclear but the money came regularly – monthly, according to the HRW citing one interviewee. This system of regular financial assistance from people in neighboring countries suggests at least some level of organization among those committed to carrying out additional attacks, which have almost exclusively targeted civilians, according to evidence the HRW documented.

Since July 2011, at least 40 Ivorian residents, including women and children, have been killed by the militia during four cross-border attacks that targeted civilians from ethnic groups who largely support President Alassane Ouattara, the New York rights campaigner said.

“In the most recent attack, on April 25, eight people were killed in the Ivorian village of Sakré,” the HRW report said adding that the attackers are “planning further cross-border raids”.

A number of high-level military and political leaders from the Gbagbo camp remain in exile in Ghana. Several of them – including the longtime Young Patriots militia leader, Charles Blé Goudé, and the former head of the gendarmerie’s armored vehicle squadron, Jean-Noël Abéhi – are subject to arrest warrants by the Ivorian justice system.

Ghanaian authorities, the HRW said have failed to arrest and extradite them. Citing a May 8 article published in a Paris-based weekly newsmagazine Jeune Afrique, the human rights group said based on interviews with the pro-Gbagbo leaders in Ghanaian exile, reported that many still speak of revenge and of toppling the Allasane Ouattara’s government.

Meanwhile, the BBC reported today June 7, 2012 that a key ally of Laurent Gbagbo has been arrested in Togo and extradited home. Moise Lida Kouassi, who once served as defence minister in the erstwhile administration, is the first of Mr Gbagbo’s allies to be arrested in connection with last year’s crisis following elections in late 2010.

According to the broadcaster’s reporter in Abidjan, Mr Kouassi stepped off a plane late on Wednesday night, handcuffed and looking surprised to be back home.

A Daily Graphic publication in late May 2012 reported that about 200 former Ivorian militants at the Eagles Camp at Elubo in Ghana have escaped in the full glare of National Security operatives and officials of the Ghana Refugee Board (GRB).

The combatants were about to be relocated to the old Ankaful Prisons in Ghana’s Central Region**