GAGNOA, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - Three more tribesmen were killed in clashes at the weekend in a major cocoa-growing area of Ivory Coast, bringing the death toll in three days of violence to at least nine, a local official said on Monday.
Local Bete tribesmen have been in conflict with farm workers from outside the area and immigrants around cocoa plantations in the Gagnoa area since Thursday.
The clashes are part of a wider cycle of violence over plantations in the world's top cocoa grower, where a civil war erupted last year and inflamed ethnic tensions.
"The toll stands today at nine dead including a policeman," local official Rene Mohiro said in a statement to reporters in Gagnoa.
He said the dead civilians were members of the local Bete tribe, killed during the clashes on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It was unclear how many workers from outside the region may have been killed.
An Ivorian army officer said on Sunday that five non-indigenous people had been killed in a security crackdown in the area, which lies about 220 km (140 miles) northwest of the economic capital Abidjan.
The army sent troops with pick-up trucks mounted with machineguns backed by helicopter gunships to the area on Saturday to quell clashes fought by tribesman with machetes and rifles.
Representatives of the non-indigenous workers in the area were not immediately available for comment.
