UN workers in Ivory Coast have found the bodies of more than 100 victims of brutal killings, a discovery that threatened to undermine presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara as he seeks to take control of the country.

Top West African mediators were today travelling into the heart of Ivory Coast’s rebel-held territory to deliver a ceasefire offer from the government.

Rebel troops in Ivory Coast have seized more towns in a bloody military uprising that has so far cost the lives of around 270 people.