Ivory Coast
Operation Great North
The northern part of the country, which shares long borders with Burkina Faso and Mali, is exposed to attacks by jihadist terrorist groups. The State invests itself on the economic level, accentuates the military grid and the contact with the populations. Report closer to these men deployed on a dangerous ground.
Every trip to the north of Côte d'Ivoire begins at the "black market" of Adjamé, in Abidjan. An armada of peddlers and passers-by constantly fail to be run over by smoking bush taxis honking their horns. Scattered in a maze of streets, the bus stations serve the whole country. Fifteen hours are needed to reach the Folon region, near the Guinean and Malian borders. Past the monumental Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix basilica in Yamoussoukro, desired by President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the drivers slalom between potholes on long straight lines. As the hours pass, the dense, wet vegetation becomes more sparse. Once Odienné, the last town in the north-west, has been crossed, the bitumen gives way to the track. For three hours, it glides over 50 kilometers towards the town of Minignan. The army has set up an advanced base there. In the early morning, the notables of the village and the soldiers gather in an open courtyard. Seated on plastic chairs, the assembly is protected from ultraviolet rays by the tin roof of a decrepit house. The area is secured 360 degrees by special forces, which form a protective bubble. The village chief, Souleymane Kouadio, is dressed in the traditional way. This 50-year-old holds his rosary and recites a prayer. Then, after the usual palaver, Brigadier General Zoumana Ouattara, with the air of a colossus of quiet strength, spoke: "The army is there to protect you, but we need your information on possible suspicious movements”, he declares khaki cap screwed on the head and telephones in hand. Children and young adults gather around and listen to the discussion. The exchange requires a translator to switch from French to Dioula, a language understood by 20 million people with a Muslim majority divided between Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire. “We do not want terrorists in our country, but their business remains miserable, retorts a notable. We welcome the government's efforts, but the young people who still cannot find work remain permeable to temptation. »
In recent years, the State has indeed installed high voltage lines and satellite dishes allowing the 4G network to operate in many villages. Also, Prime Minister Patrick Achi, who visited the North in January, announced aid of up to 3,200 billion CFA francs over three years. A part must be dedicated to the development of the region and the integration of young people, who will be "neither neglected nor forgotten" according to him. “The paperwork is a problem. We have to take the road to Odienné, ”said Souleymane Kouadio. And each trip costs 5,000 CFA francs (7.50 euros) – a fortune. “Local structures would make our lives easier. »
The Folon region remains behind compared to the rest of the country, even if permanent schools have been built. The hovels are made of earth, even straw, and most farmers, especially women, walk dozens of kilometers daily to reach their market gardeners and cultivate corn, rice and peanuts. The chaotic tracks do not allow for a substantial economic boom, even if large investments are underway. The road network consists of approximately 80,000 kilometers of roads, of which 7,500 are paved. But the border areas have not yet been reached by this modernization effort.
THE TERRORIST CONTEXT
Added to the isolation is the security threat that is progressing from the Sahel to the Gulf of Guinea. Indeed, for two years, the north of Côte d'Ivoire has been on high alert. Once popular with safari tourists in the Comoé National Park, the village of Kafolo (in the northeast) was the site, on June 10, 2020, of the first terrorist attack in the country since that of Grand-Bassam in 2016. In the middle of the night, around 60 assailants from Burkina Faso targeted an army post and killed 14 soldiers. The attack is not claimed, but the head of the commando is arrested a few days later, according to the authorities. An Ivorian-Burkinabe military operation called "Comoé" was mounted in May, a month before this attack: the security forces then killed eight suspected jihadists and arrested 38 suspects. Under pressure, the army remains obliged to increase in power and recruits 3,000 soldiers. Some are trained on the edge of the French military camp of Port-Bouët, located not far from Abidjan airport.
In Côte d'Ivoire, a country essential to the economic development of the sub-region, bilateral ties with France have remained strong. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin reaffirmed at the end of September, during a visit to the International Academy for the Fight against Terrorism (AILCT), in Jacqueville, the "full support of France". His counterpart in the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, went to Niger in July, then to Côte d'Ivoire, where he met Alassane Ouattara and visited the Port-Bouët military base, which has nearly a thousand of soldiers. He affirmed that France was going to engage in a "reflection on intelligence, on the interoperability [of their] armed forces, on the role of French forces when they are prepositioned in a country, such as Côte d'Ivoire which is a bit the model, basically, of what [they] wish to develop tomorrow”. Although vague, the new doctrine advocates the use of drones and special forces, as in Burkina Faso and Niger.
After the Kafolo attack, a “North operational zone” is created. More than a thousand Ivorian soldiers are deployed as reinforcements. Units are trained at the Army Special Forces Command in Pau, France. A deterrent presence that forces the jihadists to change their modus operandi. The use of artisanal mines is now privileged, as in June 2021, when three soldiers were killed in the explosion of their vehicle, just two days after the inauguration of the AILCT, in the presence of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean- Yves Le Drian. The latter, visiting the country, had discussed with President Alassane Ouattara the growing terrorist danger, while France was in the process of withdrawing the Barkhane force from Mali. A paradigm shift that "creates a vacuum in the region", in the words of the Ivorian head of state, pronounced during an interview given to RFI last February.
“In the time of the first president Félix Houphouët-Boigny, there was a real fear of the military coup, which is why the army remained weak”, slips a diplomat stationed in Abidjan. In 1999, on Christmas Eve, the country saw its first coup since independence, and the head of state Henri Konan Bédié had to cede power. “But these fears are no longer justified,” continues this diplomatic source. "Our rise to power takes time, don't forget that we have been a nation reconstituted for ten years", nuance Lassina Doumbia with Afrique Magazine. He welcomes us at a run to his office as Chief of Defense Staff located in the Plateau district of Abidjan, not far from the Presidency. Mobilized in the case of the 46 soldiers held hostage in Bamako as part of a diplomatic showdown between Côte d'Ivoire and Mali, the man is on all fronts. Originally from Dabadougou, near Odienné, this soldier has climbed all the levels. After the post-election crisis of 2010-2011, he led the brand new special forces. In 2018, he replaced Sékou Touré, who retired, and became Chief of Staff. "Our current strategy is to unify the operational command by decompartmentalizing the different components of the army," said the person concerned. “Nevertheless, our approach to the fight against terrorism is global and therefore relies on a lot of infrastructure work, such as schools, health centers, but also mediation work to prevent the stigmatization of certain ethnic groups. »
ASSESS THE SITUATION AND REASSURE
At the beginning of the year, Brigadier General Zoumana Ouattara was appointed commander of the military detachment of the northern operational zone. In mid-September, this high-ranking officer travels with a delegation of gendarmes, forest rangers, etc., with the aim of assessing the situation on the ground and reassuring the populations. The general's men are detached into five combined arms tactical groups (GTIA), scattered on the Ivorian belt, as the military call it, a track that runs from east to west in the north of the country. "It is very popular with smugglers," breathes Adama, a young mechanic corporal at the wheel of his Toyota Land Cruiser.
Shortly after, two backfiring and overloaded motorcycles are stopped by the head of the convoy. It is the mode of transport favored by the inhabitants of the region, but also by armed groups. These machines make it possible to be very mobile and to play with crossable borders at almost all their points. The soldiers cut the tarpaulins and discovered boxes filled with contraband cigarettes and drugs. “These stamps are a real scourge. They are a danger to the population, ”says Gendarmerie Lieutenant-Colonel Fofana, before ordering two of his men to continue the search. During the last check, the gendarmes found 12-gauge ammunition. The young smugglers were finally arrested and brought back to Odienné. "It's our only way to get out of it," one of them told us before being taken on board. “They are bandits”, decides Lieutenant-Colonel Fofana before heading back on the road. The convoy rushes at high speed through the mud, along tree-lined savannahs. On the rutted track, the bodies are put to the test. “Keep a distance of at least 50 meters between vehicles,” orders a commander on the radio who fears the presence of mines. The cabins vibrate and streak the mud, failing at times to remain bogged down. At the border post, a small bridge spans a stream leading to the village of Manankoro. It is Mali. On the Ivorian side, soldiers are positioned with heavy weapons, even if the populations can come and go without too many problems. On the other side, the Malian armed forces (Famas) are invisible. Mali and Burkina Faso still have poor control of their border.
Approaching the town of G'beya, a little further east, the vehicles suddenly stop to greet men who are blocking the way. They are dressed in animal skins and armed with daggers and carbines. They are not highway robbers, but dozo self-defense militias, from brotherhoods of hunters. The military will not tell us more, but in these areas where state control is weak, agreements exist between the armed forces and this parallel order service. The villagers must contribute to the contributions intended to finance the patrols of these militias.
In Burkina Faso, on the same model, self-defense groups baptized Koglweogo are also set up as militias collaborating with the police and the gendarmerie. But they are accused of many abuses, including rekindling ethnic conflicts. Especially between the Fulani and the dozo militias who look at each other like earthenware dogs. On September 12, the United Nations expressed its concern at “the increase in hate speech and incitement to violence against ethnic minorities”. The Peuls of Burkina, nomadic transhumant herders, are indeed frequently accused of being the fifth column of jihadism: "The majority of people arrested for alleged acts of terrorism come from this people", comments General Ouattara, before ensure "not wanting to stigmatize the entire ethnic group". While there are no precise statistics, some armed groups are in fact made up of a majority of Fulani, such as Katiba Macina, led by Amadou Koufa, or the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS), led by Adnan Abou Walid al -Sahrawi, killed by French forces in September 2021.
In G’Beya, mountains of peanuts are spread on tarpaulins by children who then wrap them in bags. Other young people hang out in the street in front of a barracks protected by watchtowers, which looks like an entrenched camp. In this advanced base, the soldiers are lined up outside at attention. “Not one centimeter of this region must be ceded. The populations must be reassured, so that the nation is proud of its army”, explains General Ouattara to them in a speech which is intended to be reassuring. “Avoid any incident at the border, and beware of social networks,” he asserts. When asked if everything is fine, a soldier reports a lack of drinking water. The men only receive three times 20 cl of water per day packaged in sachets, of unknown origin, and whose packaging punctuates every corner of the north of the country.
Last week, a soldier died in a road accident. A minute of silence is granted in his honor while the song of the muezzin crowns this ritual. Opposite, a man rests on the ground under a wooden cabin. “Everything will be fine for us, God willing. Despite the poverty and threats from armed groups, the far north of Côte d'Ivoire looks like a picture frozen in time, except that the military now occupies the ground and the government intends to accelerate its development.