UNITED Nations human rights officials said yesterday at least 173 people have been killed in the Ivory Coast in the past week during the fragile West African state’s post-election crisis.

Ivory Coast risks returning to civil war unless former president Laurent Gbagbo accepts his election defeat, UN head Ban Ki-moon warned today.

The United Nations' top envoy in Ivory Coast told the world body there was "only one winner" of the recent presidential election - and it was not the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.