Rights group: Arms transfers in Ivory Coast continue to fuel instability, human rights abuses

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – A new report from Amnesty International says arms transfers that played a pivotal role in Ivory Coast's decade-long political crisis continue to fuel instability and human rights abuses.

The report documents transfers involving states and arms traffickers both before and after the United Nations Security Council placed the West African nation under an arms embargo in November 2004.

Ivory Coast was rocked by months of postelection violence after former President Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down despite having lost the November 2010 election to now-President Alassane Ouattara. Amnesty said all parties to the conflict benefited from reckless and illegal arms transfers.

The report is timed to coincide with the final U.N. conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, which opened Monday.