The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said Wednesday she was deeply concerned about rising pre-election violence in the Ivory Coast, warning that those who fan the flames of unrest will be prosecuted.
At least 30 people have been killed in clashes throughout the country since August, ahead of elections in the west African nation, reviving fears it may slide into the kind of violence that left at least 3,000 dead in a 2010-2011 crisis.
"I am deeply concerned by public reports and information received by my office about an escalation of serious violence over the past few days in some towns and cities" in the Ivory Coast, Fatou Bensouda said.
"The violence seen in Cote d'Ivoire during the first pre-election crisis of 2010 must not be repeated," Bensouda said referring to the world's largest cocoa grower by its French name.
"Violence by any side of the political divide is not an option," she said in a statement issued from the tribunal's headquarters in The Hague.
Any person who committed, ordered, incited, encouraged or contributed to crimes would be prosecuted before Ivorian courts or the ICC, Bensouda warned.
Set up in 2002, the ICC is the world's only independent tribunal to prosecute the worst crimes but it will only do so if member countries are unable or unwilling to do so.
The court in 2011 opened a probe into post-poll violence in the Ivory Coast, which broke out after former president Laurent Gbagbo contested election results and refused to hand over power to President Alassane Ouattara.
Gbagbo was arrested and eventually flown to The Hague where he went on trial together with right-hand man Charles Ble Goude in late 2016, accused of crimes against humanity.
The pair were acquitted early last year, and Gbagbo 75, is currently living in Brussels, awaiting the outcome of an prosecutorial appeal against the decision.