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Côte d’Ivoire, Ouagadougou Agreement
Background of the Conflict
Chronology
The first signs of a crisis were registered at the beginning
of the 1990s. Latent conflicts became
critical when the first president of Côte d’Ivoire,
Félix Houphouët-Boigny, died in 1993. Economic
decline was coupled with the political exploitation
of an identity discourse around the
concept of “Ivoirité”. Henry Konan Bédié,
Houphouët-Boigny’s successor, sharpened this
nationalist discourse to exclude several candidates
from the presidential elections in 1995 (Bédié
won with about 95 per cent of the votes).
After a coup in 1999 by General Robert Guéï,
elections were held in 2000, in which the current
president, Laurent Gbagbo, emerged as the winner.
The tensions did not ease, however, and
eventually led to the coup on 18 September
2002, splitting the country into a northern part
under the control of a coalition of armed nonstate
actors, the Forces Nouvelles (FN), and a
southern part, including the country’s economic
capital of Abidjan, over which the GoCI kept
control. 62 The coalition of rebel groups comprised
the MPCI, which had instigated the 2002 coup
attempt, and two groups operating exclusively in
the western part of the country (the MPIGO and
the MJP). 63
A French intervention in 2003, codenamed
Opération Licorne, prevented a military solution
to the conflict and stopped the armed struggle at
the very onset. Nevertheless, there was massive
displacement, especially in the western region of
Dix-Huit Montagnes. At the end of 2005, there
were around 700,000 IDPs. 64 The number of
casualties is disputed, but is generally assessed at
around several hundred, mostly civilian, victims. 65
62 Gramizzi, Claudio: “La Crise Ivoirienne”, Bruxelles: Les Rapports
du GRIP (2003).
63 For a detailed account of the dynamics in the Western part, see:
International Crisis Group: “The War Is Not Yet Over”, in: Africa
Report, no. 72 (28 November 2003),
(http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=2389).
64 For detailed information, see (http://www.internaldisplacement.org).
65 See the “Rapport de la Commission d’enquête internationale
sur les allégations de violations des droits de l’homme en Côte
d’Ivoire” ( fr.wikisource.org).
Causes of the Conflict
The conflict is essentially political and identity related.
Nevertheless, there are a number of economic
issues directly linked to questions of identity
and citizenship, the most important being
land ownership. 66 The policy of Houphouët-
Boigny still practiced in some parts of the country
was to grant ownership over land to any people
cultivating it, provided the local chiefs’ agreement.
67 This policy, along with Côte d’Ivoire’s
prosperity during the 1970s and 1980s due to
high market prices for cacao, attracted many immigrants,
mainly from Burkina Faso.
During the economic crisis, the identity discourse
was used for two purposes: firstly, to frame immigrants
as scapegoats for the lack of work places
and decreasing prices for agricultural products
during the 1990s. 68 Secondly, it served as a pretext
to exclude Alassane Ouattara, who had served
as prime minister under Houphouët-Boigny,
from the election in 1995. This political dynamic
led to the expatriation of some 100,000 people
mainly from the northern part, i.e., from the constituencies
of Ouattara and his party. After coming
to power in 2000, Gbagbo did not effectively
address these issues or change the discriminatory
laws, which fuelled anger and mistrust.
Despite the absolute majority of Muslims in the
North and Catholics in the South, the conflict
was not ethniticized along religious or ethnic lines. 69
The discourse of “Ivoirité” was rather rejected altogether
by the opposition and the FN, whose
leadership represented both major religious groups.
Côte d’Ivoire also benefited from an early ceasefire
imposed by the French peacekeepers. In addition,
the rebels’ political goals were clearly to be
realized within Côte d’Ivoire, i.e., there was no
66 De Gaudusson, Jean du Bois: “L’accord de Marcoussis”, in:
Afrique contemporaine, 2003-2, no. 206 (2003)
67 Ibid.; Author’s discussions with local land-owners in the 18
Montagnes region.
68 Forum Curdiphe: “L’ivoirité, ou l’esprit du nouveau contrat social
du Président H. K. Bédié”, in: Politique Africaine, no. 78
(1996), pp. 65–9: “L’ivoirité est, selon nous, une exigence de
souveraineté, d’identité, de créativité. Le peuple ivoirien doit
d’abord affirmer sa souveraineté, son autorité face aux menaces
de dépossession et d’assujettissement: qu’il s’agisse de l’immigration
ou du pouvoir économique et politique.” (emphasis added).
69 “Rôle central de l’immigration”, in: Le Monde Diplomatique
(December 2007).
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