ABIDJAN (AFP) - The United Nations peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast risked provoking a showdown with isolated leader Laurent Gbagbo's hardline supporters Sunday, refusing his demand that it pack its bags and go. Gbagbo ordered the 10,000-strong UN mission to leave on Saturday, accusing it of arming rebels loyal to his rival Alassane Ouattara, but UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon dismissed the ultimatum and called on him to step down. "We're going to continue our patrols but we're not seeking confrontation. There are sensitive areas where we don't go, near the presidency," said Hamadoun Toure, of the United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI). "We're increasing our vigilance, and we're ready for anything," he said State television rebroadcast a recording of Gbagbo's spokeswoman reading the expulsion order every few hours, but there was no sign of an increase in tension near UN bases in Abidjan, although the streets were eerily quiet. Ivory Coast has been divided between north and south since 2002, when a failed putsch against Gbagbo triggered civil war. UNOCI deployed in 2004 to monitor a ceasefire, and was assigned to oversee last month's elections. The UN monitors endorsed results from Ivory Coast's electoral commission that gave Ouattara victory in the November 28 run-off, but Gbagbo's allies on the Constitutional Council annulled the result, claiming fraud. With both men now styling themselves as president, Gbagbo retains control of the southern armed forces, the Abidjan ministries and the cocoa ports that are Ivory Coast's main source of revenue. Meanwhile, post-election violence in Ivory Coast has left more than 50 people dead and more than 200 injured, the UN high commissioner for human rights said Sunday, deploring "massive violations of human rights." As UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast refused a demand by leader Laurent Gbagbo that they pack its bags and go, Navi Pillay said in a statement that "in the past three days there has been more than 50 people killed, and over 200 injured." And she expressed concern about "the growing evidence of massive violations of human rights" in the restive west African country since Thursday and vowed "to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable for their actions." Both incumbent leader Gbagbo and his rival Alassane Ouattara claim to have won last month's presidential run-off election in Ivory Coast. While the latter has been recognised as the victor by the international community, Gbagbo is clinging doggedly on to power. Tension has reached boiling point in Ivory Coast's commercial capital Abidjan, where violence erupted Thursday during a protest march by Ouattara's supporters, and where Gbagbo's armed forces are in an uneasy stand-off with the UN. "When people are victims of extrajudicial killings there must be an investigation, and there must be accountability," Pillay noted. "However, the deteriorating security conditions in the country and the interference with freedom of movement of UN personnel have made it difficult to investigate the large number of human rights violations reported." Saturday, Gbagbo ordered the 10,000-strong UN mission to leave the country, accusing it of arming rebels loyal to Ouattara, but the UN chief dismissed the ultimatum and called on him to step down. Pillay said the UN mission in Ivory Coast "has received reports from hundreds of victims and members of their families about the abduction of individuals from their homes, especially at night, by unidentified armed individuals in military uniform accompanied by elements of the Defence and Security Forces or militia groups." "Abducted persons are reportedly taken by force to illegal places of detention where they are held incommunicado and without charge. Some have been found dead in questionable circumstances," she added. She urged all Ivorian parties concerned "to respect the human rights of all Ivorians, without discrimination".