The opposition Cote d'Ivoire Popular Front (FPI) is pressing for an "international inquiry" into the mutiny that occurred on July 23, when deaths were reported at the Abidjan Detention and Correction House (MACA).

In a statement issued on Thursday, the FPI, the party of Cote d'Ivoire's ex-president Laurent Gbagbo, called for an "international commission of inquiry" to investigate what it sees as "massacres."

The party said the inquiry will help identify the "true causes, the true circumstances and the real figure of the victims."

On the night of July 23, an army intervention in a fight between prison guards and detainees at MACA left at least three inmates dead and several others injured, sources from the prison department said.

"The death toll was at least 50 people and several others were injured, two of them are still in a critical condition," the FPI said in its statement, citing "prisoners who helped collect the bodies."

"The real figure of the people who died is yet to be determined, " Cote d'Ivoire's main opposition party said, dismissing the reasons given by the prison authorities to justify the army intervention.

The FPI affirmed that on the night of July 23, "there was no attempted "prison break" or a confrontation between "armed detainees" and prison guards.

The army unnecessarily intervened and started beating up prisoners after one of them had refused to be transferred to another prison, the party said, adding that the army's intervention forced the prisoners to protest and this is when they were "mercilessly beaten up by the army."

"The people of Cote d'Ivoire do not believe the reasons given and the number of victims which was announced before counting the dead bodies, to cover up the regime's genocidal intentions," the FPI declared.

The government has not issued any official statement after the riot at MACA, the country's biggest prison which has a total of 5, 000 detainees for less than 2,000 available spaces.