Eight people were killed and around 30 injured during clashes which broke out on Friday in the western Ivory Coast cocoa town of Duekoue, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Sunday. "The local Red Cross with ICRC support have evacuated about 30 wounded to the local hospital in addition to eight people killed," ICRC spokesman Kim Gordon-Bates said. "The situation there at the moment is still tense and we're keeping a close watch on it," he said. Residents said they heard gunfire early on Sunday but the situation now appeared to be calm, Reuters reported. The attacks were triggered after members of the Guere community, which hails from Ivory Coast's west, returned to work on Friday despite a call for traders and transport workers to strike over security problems in the town, locals said. The area around Duekoue is an ethnic tinderbox where a civil war which erupted in 2002 has exacerbated long-running disputes between local villagers and farmers coming from neighbouring countries or other parts of Ivory Coast. --More 2253 Local Time 1953 GMT
