Ivory Coast Officials Inciting Violence (Video)

UN officials Thursday expressed concern that leaders in the Ivory Coast are inciting violence among the populace.

A woman crosses the street in front of a burnt-out United Nations peacekeeper car on Thursday in the Yopougon neighbourhood of Abidjan, home to supporters of Laurent Gbagbo. A mob attacked a UN convoy in Abidjan on December 28, 2010, injuring one peacekeeper with a machete and setting a vehicle alight, the UN said. Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images

Thousands Flee Crisis in Ivory Coast (NTD Television)

United Nations officials Thursday expressed concern that leaders in the Ivory Coast are inciting violence among the populace and warned that an attack on the newly elected president could trigger civil war.

The U.N. stressed its concern after a report that one of the top officials supporting incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo had called for an attack on the hotel where President-elect Alassane Ouattara is headquartered.

“Any attack on the Golf Hotel could provoke widespread violence that could reignite civil war,” the U.N. said in a statement.

The U.N. peacekeeping forces are guarding the Golf Hotel.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the peacekeepers are “authorized to use all necessary means to protect its personnel, as well as the government officials and other civilians at these premises of the hotel.”

The official who called for the hotel attack, Charles Ble Goude, served as the country’s Youth minister and leader of the Young Patriot movement in Gbagbo’s government.

Ouattara was officially recognized as president after presidential elections on Nov. 28, but Gbagbo has refused to step down.