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III. Background

Côte d’Ivoire was one of the most stable and prosperous countries in West Africa for thirty years, after independence from France in 1960. It was governed by President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, an ethnic Baoulé  whose Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (Parti Democratique de la Côte d’Ivoire, PDCI) monopolized political activity in what was effectively a one-party state.

Under Houphouet-Boigny, the cocoa-based economy flourished, drawing in millions of foreign workers, particularly from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Guinea. By the late 1980s, however, commodity prices were falling and Côte d’Ivoire’s foreign debt rising. An economic recession in the early 1990s brought an increase in rural unemployment.

Many educated urban youth returned to their villages to find themselves unemployed and competing for land and increasingly scarce resources with immigrant foreign workers from neighboring West African countries. In the west, the heart of the cocoa and coffee growing region, friction rose between immigrant plantation workers and the Ivorian villagers who had sold or leased them land. The death of Houphouet-Boigny in 1993 marked the beginning of overt political tension and the end of the fragile ethnic balance he had maintained among Côte d’Ivoire’s myriad indigenous tribes and West African immigrants.

Houphouet-Boigny’s successor, Henri Konan Bédié, exploited differences in Ivorian society to shore up his core political support. Bédié exploited the idea of “Ivoirité” (Ivorianess) in an attempt to separate “real” Ivorians from outsiders. The country’s economic woes were blamed on foreigners. The most notable victim of this exclusion has been Alassane Ouattara, a northern Muslim of Burkina Faso descent who was barred by Bédié from running for President. Ouattara headed the Rally of Republicans party (Rassemblement de Republicains, RDR), which had considerable support from northern ethnic groups and Muslims, and was considered to be one of Bédié’s strongest political rivals. 

During Bédié’s six-year rule allegations of corruption and mismanagement multiplied, and he increasingly relied on ethnicity as a political tactic to garner support in an unfavorable economic climate. In 1999, Gen. Robert Guei, a Yacouba from the west and Bédié’s chief of staff, took power in a coup following a mutiny by soldiers. Initially applauded by most opposition groups as a welcome change from the longstanding PDCI rule and Bédié’s corrupt regime, Guei’s pledges to eliminate corruption and introduce an inclusive Ivorian government were soon overshadowed by his personal political ambitions and the repressive measures he used against both real and suspected opposition.⁸ Throughout 2000 – another election year –Ivorian politics became increasingly divided on ethnic and religious lines.

The cumulative political, economic, religious and ethnic tensions of the 1990s erupted into violence during the presidential elections in October 2000.⁹ The legitimacy of the elections was seriously compromised by the exclusion of fourteen of the nineteen presidential candidates, including Alassane Ouattara and the PDCI candidate, former president Bédié. General Guei fled the country on October 25, 2000 after massive popular protests and the loss of military support followed his attempt to entirely disregard the election results and seize power. Laurant Gbagbo, an opposition politician who had for years fought against Houphouet-Boigny’s one-party democracy, and candidate for the Ivorian Popular Front (Front Populaire Ivoirien, FPI) was installed as president a day later. This transition was marred by violence as RDR supporters – calling for new elections – clashed with FPI supporters and government security forces. Over 200 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in the violence surrounding the October 2000 presidential and December 2000 parliamentary elections.

Rebellion 

On September 19, 2002 rebels from the Patriotic Movement of Côte d’Ivoire (Mouvement Patriotique de Côte d’Ivoire, MPCI) attacked Abidjan, the commercial and de facto capital of Côte d’Ivoire, and the northern towns of Bouaké and Korhogo. The attempted coup was led by a number of junior military officers who had been at the forefront of the 1999 coup, but left after several of them were detained and tortured under Guei. In late 1999 they had fled to Burkina Faso, where they were thought to have received training and possibly other forms of support in the two years between their exile from Côte d’Ivoire and their return on September 19, 2002.

The MPCI rebels were composed mainly of “Dioula” or northerners of Malinké, Senaphou and other ethnicities, some Burkinabe and Malian recruits, and the “dozos,” or traditional hunters.¹⁰ Its main stated aims were the redress of recent military reforms, new elections and the removal of President Gbagbo, whose presidency was perceived as illegitimate given the flawed elections in 2000. However, it also represented other grievances, including the widely held feeling of many northern Ivorians that they were consistently politically excluded and systematically discriminated against over the past decade. While the core of the MPCI was northern Ivorian—such as Senaphou and Malinké—its membership at both the troop and high political levels included most Ivorian ethnic groups, including Baoulé and Bété members.

The MPCI failed to take Abidjan but within two months had taken much of the north as well as the key western towns of Man and Danane, (approximately 50 percent of the country.)  The western towns were taken with the help of two groups composed largely of Liberian and Sierra Leonean fighters: the Movement for Justice and Peace (Mouvement pour la justice et la paix, MJP), and the Ivorian popular Movement for the Far West (Mouvement Populaire Ivoirien du Grand Ouest, MPIGO). These three groups of rebels later formed a military-political alliance known as the New Forces (Forces Nouvelles, FN).

The armed conflict between the government and the Force Nouvelles officially ended in January 2003 with the signing of a French-brokered peace accord by all the warring parties. The agreement, known as the Linas-Marcoussis accord, called for a government of national reconciliation with members from each faction of the rebels as well as opposition parties. The government of national reconciliation was tasked with reforming the laws on nationality, electoral procedure and land inheritance. The accord delegated most powers to a prime minister who would lead the government until a free and fair presidential election was held. 

Since 2003, the country has effectively been split in two with the New Forces based in Bouaké, controlling the land-locked north, and President Gbagbo holding the south, where the bulk of the country’s 16 million inhabitants live.

Côte d’Ivoire made scant progress toward implementing Linas-Marcoussis in 2003. Despite the presence in government of the rebels and the main opposition political parties known collectively as the G7, representatives of the New Forces withdrew in September 2003 complaining of President Gbagbo’s “lack of good faith” in implementing the accords.

The United Nations, the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), feared a renewal of hostilities and so organized a summit in Accra, Ghana in July 2004 to reinvigorate Linas-Marcoussis.  This resulted in the Accra III agreement which committed the government to adopt key legal reforms including one on citizenship for West African immigrants, one which would define eligibility under article 35 of the Ivorian constitution to contest presidential elections and another which changed rights to land tenure.  

A French and ECOWAS force had moved in to secure towns in western Côte d’Ivoire in June 2003 and monitor the cease-fire. In May 2003, the U.N Security Council approved a political and observation mission to the country – the United Nations Mission in Côte d’Ivoire (MINUCI) – which was made up of military liaison personnel and civilian human rights monitors.

On February 27, 2004, given concerns about both the lack of progress in implementing the peace agreement and that “the situation in Cote d’Ivoire continued to pose a threat to international peace and security in the region,” MINUCI was transformed into a peacekeeping force by U.N. Security Council resolution 1528.¹¹ The force, deployed on a one-year renewable mandate on April 4, 2004, comprised some 6,000 UN blue helmets backed by 4,000 more heavily-armed French troops belonging to Operation Unicorn (Licorne). Together they patrol an east-west buffer strip between the opposing Ivorian forces known as the Zone of Confidence. The U.N. mission is known as the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI). It operates under Chapter VII of the U.N. charter with a mandate to “protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence, within its capabilities and its areas of deployment” and to oversee a program of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) agreed by the two parties.¹²

Ceasefire Broken

On November 4, 2004, despite considerable political investment by the United Nations, France and the African Union to bring about a negotiated settlement to the conflict, President Gbagbo’s government launched bombing raids on rebels in the north, shattering an 18-month-long cease-fire. French and UNOCI forces did not respond to the attacks until nine French soldiers were killed in an air attack on Bouaké on November 6, 2004.  French aircraft immediately destroyed two Ivorian Sukhoi 25 fighter-bombers, the kernel of the country’s tiny air force, on the ground at Yamoussoukro, the political capital of Côte d’Ivoire, in retaliation.

The French attack against the Ivorian Air Force triggered a stream of invective against France and foreigners from Ivorian state broadcasters and pro-government newspapers which urged “patriots” to take to the streets to defend the nation. French homes, businesses and institutions were looted and torched prompting the biggest evacuation of foreigners in the country’s post-colonial history. Some 8,000 people from 63 countries left Côte d’Ivoire in November 2004.  The loss of these expatriates has severely affected an already ailing economy

The U.N. Security Council reacted to the upsurge of violence by imposing an arms embargo on Côte d’Ivoire in November 2004.¹³ In February 2005 it voted to strengthen the embargo and authorized the naming of a panel of experts to monitor it. After the offensive President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa stepped up efforts to mediate between President Gbagbo and the rebels. Mbeki had been mandated by the AU to secure the implementation of the Linas-Marcoussis peace deal, which among other things, called for the constitution to be amended to allow candidates with only one Ivorian parent to run in national elections. That would permit Ouattara to run against President Gbagbo in October 2005. Parliament voted reluctantly in December 2004 to amend Article 35 of the constitution but President Gbagbo insisted that the amendment be put to a referendum, which would effectively delay the October presidential election.

The Pretoria Agreement

Following the February 28, 2005 government attack on rebel-held Logouale and amid rumors of an imminent government offensive against the north, President Mbeki intensified peace efforts and summoned all the parties to a meeting in Pretoria on April 3, 2005. Three days of intensive negotiations resulted in the Pretoria Agreement which: included a declaration of “the immediate and final cessation of all hostilities;” committed the New Forces rebels and Ivorian government to disarm all combatants, including militias; provided for ministers representing the New Forces to return to the government of national reconciliation; and committed all actors to take steps towards presidential elections planned for October 2005. The contentious issue of eligibility to stand for the presidency – effectively the downfall of both previous accords – was left with mediator Mbeki to decide following consultations with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and African Union head Olusegun Obasanjo.¹⁴

In a letter from President Mbeki to President Gbagbo read out on Ivorian state television on April 13, 2005, President Mbeki asked the Ivorian president to use his special presidential powers granted him under the constitution to clear the way for all parties who signed the Pretoria Agreement to be allowed to contest, effectively clearing the way for Mr. Gbagbo’s biggest political rival, to run against him.¹⁵

Economic Decline

The war and subsequent political stalemate have played out against a backdrop of national and regional economic decline. Before the military coup of 1999 the Côte d’Ivoire was feeling the economic pinch after years of falling commodity prices, economic mismanagement and corruption. Even so, it was prosperous relative to its neighbors and had the best infrastructure in West Africa. Now, years of neglect coupled with insecurity are taking their toll. Cocoa, coffee, cotton and other crops are still getting to port but unemployment and national debt are rising. In 2004 the economy shrank by three to four percent and the budget deficit ballooned. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have frozen all loans because of non-payment. An exodus of foreigners after the anti-French riots of November has exacerbated the decline.¹⁶