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

Forces

These 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 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.

Context: crisis of ivoirity

After Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the country entered a complex crisis. Laurent Gbagbo and Jean-Noël Loucou, as historians, had in the 1980s struggled with the myth of Houphouët-Boigny, 'the father of the nation'.

His successors did not have his charisma, and could not deal with economic difficulties, due largely to the deterioration of the terms of trade between Third World and developed countries.

The crisis became political around ivoirity. Democratization in fact raised the questions of the definition of citizenship, and voting rights.

Degradation of the political climate

After three decades of dictatorship, the coup d'etat of General Robert Guéï was legitimized by the recognition of the Popular Front of the Ivory Coast (FPI) of Laurent Gbagbo and the RDR of Alassane Ouattara.

The candidates of the PDCI and the RDR for the presidency in 2000 were excluded ed by the Supreme Court. Consequently, public life became a theatre of verbal violence. The political leaders aggravated this established fact, causing increasingly serious antagonisms and worsening rancours.

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; some politicians exaggerated this to the inflated figure of 40%.

56% of those from outside the country are Burkinabés; the Malians and Guinéens form the two other significant contributions. Houphouët-Boigny has been stigmatised, retrospectively, with have given Ivory Coast nationality to Burkinabés resident in Côte d'Ivoire in return for political support. The foreigners had already been serious victims of violence: in 1995, Burkinabés were killed in plantations at Tabou, at the time of racial riots.

"Ivoirity"

The word was first used by Henri Konan Bédié in 1995. It initially referred to the common cultural identity of all those living in Côte d'Ivoire, especially foreigners in Ivory Coast (who represent one third of the population).

However, nationalist and xenophobic ideas fanned by politics and the press changed it to mean population from the South and East of the country. Before the 2000 elections, a law quickly drafted by the government and upheld by the Supreme Court required both parents of a presidential candidate to be born within Côte d'Ivoire. This led to the disqualification of the northern presidential candidate Alassane Ouattara, representing the predominantly Muslim north, often poor immigrant workers from 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.

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 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 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.