ABIDJAN: President Alassane Ouattara declared three days of national mourning for victims of Ivory Coast's deadly post-election violence, state television reported Wednesday.
The national mourning, to be observed from Thursday, will be to honour "those killed, missing or injured before, during and after the post-election crisis," said the state broadcaster TCI, who stressed that these would not be public holidays.
Ouattara will attend an official ceremony to be held Thursday along with other government officials and representatives of victims' relatives.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the violence spawned by the disputed November 28 presidential elections.
Ouattara, internationally recognized as the winner of those polls, was officially sworn in as president May 5 following the arrest of his bitter rival Laurent Gbagbo.
Gbagbo, who had refused to accept defeat in the November poll and cede power, is being held in the far-northern town of Korhogo, nearly 600 kilometres (370 miles) from Abidjan where he was dramatically hauled from his home on April 11 after a 15-day battle that drew in UN and French forces.
The Ivorian justice ministry said that investigators planned to question Gbagbo, his wife Simone and more than 200 figures from the former regime, a process that would last until June.
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