Civil war in Côte d'Ivoire

The Civil war in Côte d'Ivoire began on September 19, 2002, and restarted in November 2004.

Context of the conflict

The civil war revolves around a number of issues, particularly:

• The end of the 30-year presidency of Félix Houphouët-Boigny forced the nation to grapple with the democratic process for the first time. Houphouët-Boigny had been president for the 33 years since independence, and so the nation's political system was bound tightly to his myth, charisma, and political and economic competence. The political system was forced to deal with open, competitive elections without Houphouët-Boigny for the first time in 1994.
• The large number of foreigners in Cote d'Ivoire created an important issue of voting rights. 26% of the population was of foreign origin, particularly from Burkina Faso, a poorer country to the North. These ethnic tensions had been suppressed under the strong leadership of Houphouët-Boigny, but bubbled to the surface after his passing. The term Ivoirity, originally coined by Henri Konan Bédié to denote the common cultural identity of all those living in Côte d'Ivoire came to be used by nationalist and xenophobic politics and press to represent solely the population and country of the southeastern portion of the country, particularly Abidjan.
• An economic downturn due to a deterioration of the terms of trade between Third World and developed countries worsened conditions, exacerbating the underlying cultural and political issues.

Rising tensions

Violence was turned initially against African foreigners. Indeed, the prosperity of the Côte d'Ivoire attracted many Africans from West Africa, who constituted in 1998 26% of the population, 56% of whom were Burkinabés.

In this atmosphere of increasing racial tension, Houphouët-Boigny's policy of granting nationality to Burkinabés resident in Côte d'Ivoire was critized as being solely to gain their political support.

In 1995, the tensions turned violent when Burkinabés were killed in plantations at Tabou , at the time of racial riots.

Catalyst to the conflict

The catalyst for the conflict was the law quickly drafted by the government immediately before the elections of 2000 which required both parents of a presidential candidate to be born within Côte d'Ivoire. This excluded the northern presidential candidate Alassane Ouattara from the race. Ouattara represented the predominantly Muslim north, particuarly the poor immigrant workers from Mali and Burkina Faso working on coffee and cocoa plantations.

Civil war

The North rebelled on September 19, 2002 . Their principal claim relates to nationality of the Ivory Coast, the voting rights and their representation in Abidjan.

In parallel, a coup d'etat took place in Abidjan, showing that it is not a tribal issue, but a crisis of transition from a dictatorship to a democracy, with the clashes inherent in the definition of citizenship.

Forces involved in the conflict include:

• Official government forces, the National Army (FANCI), also called loyalists, formed and equipped essentially since 2003
• The Young Patriots, violent nationalist groups aligned with president Laurent Gbagbo
• Mercenaries — allegedly Belarusians recruited by president Gbagbo
• New Forces (FN), ex-northern rebels, who hold 60% of the country
• French forces: troops sent within the framework of Operation Unicorn and under UN mandate (ONUCI), 3000 men in February 2003 and 4600 in November 2004;
• Soldiers of the CEDEAO , White helmets, also under the UN.

The rebels were immediately well armed, most probably supported by Burkina Faso. The rebellion was prepared planned in Burkina Faso by soldiers of the Ivory Coast close to General Guéï. Guillaume Soro , leader of the Patriotic Movement of Côte d'Ivoire (MPCI), leader of the rebels, comes from a trade union close to the FPI of Gbagbo, but was also a substitute for an RDR candidate in the legislative elections of 2000. Louis Dacoury Tabley was also one of the leaders of the FPI.

The rebels moved quickly southwards. At this point in time France intervened, on September 22, to protect its nationals and the Westerners (the USA protecting its own nationals).

On October 17, a cease-fire was signed, and negotiations started.

On November 28, the popular Movement of the Ivory Coast of the Great West (MPIGO) and the Movement for Justice and Peace (MJP), two new rebel movements, take the control of the towns of Man and Danané, in the west of the country. France conducted negotiations.

September 2002

The rebels seized power in the north of the country, and moved towards Abidjan, intending take over there.

France considered the uprising a humiliation. The north is desert, whereas the south is richer, fertile and coastal; with ethnic and religious differences.

Laurent Gbagbo considered deserters from the army, supported by interference from Burkina Faso, as the cause of destabilization. The principal difference in interpretation related to defence. The consequence is that Paris wished for reconciliation, when the Côte d'Ivoire government wanted military repression.

Paris sent 2500 soldiers to man a peace line and requested help from the United Nations.

The Kléber (Marcoussis) agreements

To bring parties together, the parties signed a compromise at Linas-Marcoussis (see Kléber agreements ) on January 26. President Gbagbo was to retain power, opponents were invited into a government of reconciliation and obtained the ministries for Defense and the Interior. Soldiers of the CEDEAO and 4000 French soldiers were placed between the belligerents - a peace line.

As of February 4, anti-French demonstrations took place in Abidjan, in support for Laurent Gbagbo. The end of the civil war was proclaimed on July 4. An attempt at a putsch, organized from France by Ibrahim Coulibaly (FPI), was thwarted on August 25 by the French secret service.

The UN authorized the formation of the ONUCI on February 27, 2004, which comprises the French forces and those of the CEDEAO.

On March 4, the PDCI suspended its participation in the government, being in dissension with the FPI (President Gbagbo's party) on nominations to office within the administration and in public companies.

On March 25, a peace march was organized to protest against the blocking of the Marcoussis agreements. Demonstrations had been prohibited by decree since March 18th, and the march was repressed by the armed forces: 37 died according to the government, between 300 and 500 according to Henri Konan Bédié's PDCI. This repression caused the withdrawal from the government of several opposition parties. A UN report of May 3 estimated at least 120 dead, and implicated highly-placed government officials.

The government of national reconciliation, initially composed of 44 members, was reduced to 15 after the dismissal of three ministers, amongst them Guillaume Soro , political head of the rebels, on May 6. That involved the suspension of the participation in the national government of the majority of political movements.

The French consequently were in an increasingly uncomfortable situation. The two sides each accused France of siding with the other: the loyalists because of its protection of the rebels, and the non-implementation the agreements of defense made with the Côte d'Ivoire; the rebels because it was preventing the capture of Abidjan.

On June 25, a French soldier was killed in his vehicle by a government soldier close to Yamoussoukro.

In July, a summit in Accra, organised by the UN, started a peace process by setting a new calendar.

The resumption of fighting

But the timetable was not respected. The bills envisaged in the process were blocked by the FPI with the French National Assembly. The conditions of eligibility for the presidential poll were not re-examined, because Laurent Gbagbo claimed the right to choose a prime minister, not in accordance with agreements suggested in Accra. Faced with political impasse, the disarmament whose beginning had been envisaged fifteen days after the constitutional modifications did not begin in mid-October.

A sustained assault on the press followed, with newspapers partial to the north being banned and two presses destroyed. Dissenting radio stations were silenced.

UN soldiers opened fire on hostile demonstrators taking issue with the disarmament of the rebels on October 11. The rebels, who took the name of New Forces (FN), announced on October 13 their refusal to disarm, citing large weapons purchases by the Côte d'Ivoire national army (FANCI). They intercepted two trucks of the FANCI full of heavy weapons travelling towards the demarcation line. On October 28, they declared an emergency in the north of the country.

On November 4, the new FANCI planes began a bombardment of Bouaké. On November 6, governmental forces killed nine, with 39 wounded, among the French soldiers based with Bouaké. The French forces reacted by destroying both Sukhoï fighter-bombers based at Yamoussoukro, 15 minutes after the attack. Jacques Chirac gave the order to destroy five other helicopters. One hour after the attack on the camp, French forces established control of the airport of Abidjan. Simultaneously, the Young Patriots of Abidjan (see politics of Côte d'Ivoire for more details), rallied by the State media, plundered possessions of French nationals. Rapes, beatings, and murders followed. Several hundreds Westerners, mainly French, took refuge on the roofs of their buildings to escape the mob, and were then evacuated by helicopters of the French Army. France sent in reinforcements of 600 men based Gabon and France.

Recent developments

As from the week of Monday November 8 2004, expatriate Westerners (French mainly, but also Moroccan, German, Spanish, British, Dutch, Swiss, Canadian, and Americans) in Côte d'Ivoire chose to leave. On November 13, President of the Ivorian National Assembly Mamadou Coulibaly (FPI) declared that the government of the Ivory Coast did not take any responsibility in the bombardment of November 6, and announced its intention of approaching the International Court of Justice:

• for the destruction of the Ivory Coast Air force, only recently re-equipped;
• for activities by the French Army responsible for several deaths.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Laurent Gbagbo called into question even the French deaths. Lastly, on the morning of 13 November, 2600 expatriate French had returned to France, and 1600 other European expatriates had left.