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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
COTE D IVOIRE: Hundreds displaced by inter-ethnic violence in confidence zone
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
BOLI, 19 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - An exchange of insults between two children of different ethnic groups mushroomed two days later into full-scale fighting between neighbours in this large village in the no-man's land between government and rebel lines in Cote d'Ivoire.
Houses were burned, cattle were killed, several people received machete wounds and 1,000 members of the minority Dioula community in Boli last month trekked out to seek shelter in the rebel sector.
UN peacekeepers were called to restore order, but took six hours to arrive from the rebel capital Bouake, 75 km to the north.
President Laurent Gbagbo and the rebel forces occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire may have agreed earlier this month to put a two-year-old peace agreement back on the rails, but the situation on the ground in many places remains tense.
As in Boli, a village of 8,000 souls on the railway line from the port of Abidjan to Burkina Faso, Muslim northerners are all too readily seen as sympathisers with the rebel cause, while Christian southerners are identified with the pro-Gbagbo camp.
The curious thing about the flare-up of violence in Boli on 30 March was that it took place in the Zone of Confidence, a demilitarised zone between the government and rebel frontlines where neither faction holds sway.
UN and French peacekeepers that patrol the broad swathe of territory that keeps the two sides apart, are supposed to maintain security.
"It started with name calling," said village chief Nana Paul Kouadio Yao, who comes from the Baoule tribe, to which most of Boli's inhabitants belong.
"One of the Dioula youngsters starting making fun of a Baoule lad - a handicapped boy," he said.
"News spread like wildfire, with each side saying they were the injured party until a couple of days later, Baoule from all the surrounding villages came here armed with traditional hunting guns, machetes and big sticks to settle the matter," Yao said.
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| Village chief Nana Paul Kouadio Yao |
Just over 200 fled to Bouake, and around 230 sought refuge in Raviart, 15 km up the road.
Old tensions aggravated by war
The Dioula are Muslims who originally came from the north of Cote d'Ivoire, the heartland of the rebellion, but many of those in Boli had been living there for generations.
Yao, the village chief, played down suggestions that the feud between them and the local Baoule people had anything to do with the war.
"It had nothing to do with the political situation in the country - it was the same in the 1950s when I was a youngster," he explained.
However, long-standing ethnic tensions at a local level have been exacerbated since the civil war erupted in September 2002, particularly in the south. There, people of northern origin and immigrants from other West African countries have suffered frequent persecution, sometimes at the hands of their neighbours, at other times by the security forces and pro-Gbagbo militia groups.
Hate campaigns on radio, television and in the Abidjan daily newspapers have only served to deepen the existing mistrust.
In Boli, scores of Dioula homes were burned down and because the Dioula are traders, the market was set alight too.
"When they came with their hunting guns and clubs, I left my shop and ran and hid in another part of the village," said Lassina Zourme.
As he sat by charred remains of his general store where he sold everything from soap to canned food and cement, Zourme predicted that the market was unlikely to reopen, since many Dioula people were too frightened to return to the village.
"Lots of people left and they haven't come back - they had their houses and shops badly burned and smashed up so they're scared. My mother left. She's staying in Bouake, but I had nowhere to go," he told IRIN.
"It's not easy - not because it's dangerous - but because I have no income," he said. "I am married, I have a wife and two little girls. We have to rely on the help of others to get by."
WFP has donated a month of dry rations - oil, beans, maize, salt and vitamin biscuits - to every displaced adult.
"We are helping the displaced and a lot of people who stayed behind as they lost their harvest in the attack," said Mamadou Diarra, logistics assistant at WFP Bouake.
The white-robed elderly chief of the Dioula community in Boli, Baboukary Traore, said the Baoule attackers also targeted the mosque.
"Take a look!" They smashed the door of the mosque and broke things inside," he said, standing in the remains of his own burned-down compound.
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| Child outside the charred remains of the Boli bakery |
Soumauka Sylla, a Dioula cotton farmer, is among those who left Boli. He fled with his three wives and eight children to Raviart, three hours walk away, and vowed never to return.
"I brought the whole family - even that dog there!" he said with a nod in the direction of a dirty mongrel lazing in the sticky afternoon heat.
"What else can you do when everything is burned - the clothes you wear, the place you sleep, where you eat and with children too? No. I can't go back," said Sylla, who explained that he had lost his cotton crop as well as all his money and belongings.
"They killed two of our community's cows - full grown ones too, worth about 250,000 CFA (around US $500) a piece. We clubbed together and bought them as a cooperative, we've got 35 left which we've brought with us."
"If I build my house in Boli, they will smash it up again. So I'm building here in Raviart. I have connections here," said Sylla.
He laid the blame for the violence squarely on Yao, the Baoule chief in Boli, saying that he called on people from the surrounding villages to carry out the attack.
But Yao, a well-educated man with a smart cement house set among mango and banana trees, denied having any part in the affair.
"I was out of town. If it hadn't been for my efforts to calm the situation upon my return it could have been much worse. I informed ONUCI (the UN peacekeeping force) of what was going on at 9 a.m. but they didn't get here until 3 p.m.," he said.
"When I asked them why they took so long, they said it was because the road is bad but it is two hours, not six hours, from here to Bouake," said Yao.
Help was slow in coming
Sylla is also confused why help didn't arrive earlier.
"There is a French base, right here in Raviart - just behind those houses over there," he said pointing up the hill.
But the officer in charge of the French base, where 30 soldiers rotate on two-week cycles, explained that his unit was unable to intervene in Boli, since it had not received a request to do so from the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI).
"I was personally not on duty here at Raviart when the incident took place, but it is the case that we need a mandate from ONUCI before we can intervene in local affairs," Lieutenant Blanc told IRIN.
"Of course we would not sit back and watch things happen before our eyes, but to have been able to assist in this case we would have needed a request from ONUCI. We did not get one."
Back in Bouake, ONUCI section commander Major General Bezzani said that his forces got to the scene as soon as possible.
"We were informed of the problem at 11.30 a.m. or 12 noon, something like that. It certainly was not 9 a.m. And as the road is bad, it took three hours for the military vehicles to get there," he said.
"The problem is, there are always lots of rumours flying around and our job is to monitor the situation between FANCI [the government army] and the New Forces," he said.
Yao, the Baoule chief of Boli, has urged all the Dioula villagers to return, promising that they will be safe.
"All the problems have been solved. They should come back. We have more to gain by living together in harmony than we do by living separately," he said.
He is looking for money to start rebuilding the village's burnt-out houses and shops.
Zourme agreed with the chief that things would be better in Boli, if they could get over the events of last month, but for different reasons.
"Since they burned down the market, you have to walk half an hour to get to the nearest shop," he complained. "And if you want some car parts you have to go all the way to Bouake."
"There's all this rebuilding that needs doing and it used to be me that sold the cement. But they'll have to get that from Bouake now too," he said grumpily.
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2005
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