The Crisis in Côte d’Ivoire

The document analyzes the roots of the conflict in Côte d’Ivoire, tracing it from the death of President Felix Houphoüet-Boigny in 1993 to the 2002 rebel seizure of the north. It highlights the role of 'Ivoirité' in disenfranchising northerners and the failure of peace accords like Marcoussis and Accra II and III. The author argues that because all major political actors—including Laurent Gbagbo, Henri Konan Bédié, Alassane Ouattara, and Guillaume Soro—have acted in bad faith, they should be barred from politics in favor of an interim government and neutral election supervision.

• The current crisis is rooted in the concept of 'Ivoirité' (Ivorian-ness) introduced by Henri Konan Bédié to distinguish 'real' citizens from foreigners, which served to exclude rivals and disenfranchise people from the north based on their names and cultural links to Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea.
• Alassane Ouattara became a central figure in the politics of exclusion; his Ivorian citizenship was contested by the governments of Bédié and Gbagbo due to his Burkina Faso descent and Muslim faith, effectively barring him from presidential candidacy.
• President Laurent Gbagbo is accused of exacerbating ethnic divisions by financing the Young Patriots militia, which has been linked to violent demonstrations, attacks on foreigners, and extra-judicial killings.
• Multiple peace efforts, including the French-brokered Marcoussis accord and the Accra II and III agreements, have been broken by both the government and rebel forces.
• The author concludes that because Gbagbo, Bédié, Ouattara, and Guillaume Soro have all acted in bad faith or lack political legitimacy, the best solution is to bar them from politics and establish an interim government to lead the country to internationally supervised elections.

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (2005). The Crisis in Côte d’Ivoire. https://saiia.org.za/research/the-crisis-in-cote-divoire/

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. The Crisis in Côte d’Ivoire. 2005. https://saiia.org.za/research/the-crisis-in-cote-divoire/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=The Crisis in Côte d’Ivoire |date=20 April 2005 |url=https://saiia.org.za/research/the-crisis-in-cote-divoire/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairs2005crisis, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{The Crisis in Côte d’Ivoire}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2005}, month = apr, url = {https://saiia.org.za/research/the-crisis-in-cote-divoire/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }