Ivorian Prime Minister Patrick Achi (centre) was greeted by the Far North region’s administrative authorities during the launch of a major aid plan for young people in the border regions of Mali and Burkina Faso, where the groups are trying to recruit jihadists. in Tougbo, on January 22, 2022. SIA KAMBOU / AFP
The buildings still smell of fresh paint on the streets of Bounkani, a region in the extreme northeast of the Ivory Coast that borders Burkina Faso and Ghana. Pharmacies, schools, municipal granaries, drinking water supply or electrification programs: In the villages bordering the huge Comoé National Park, hundreds of panels present the ongoing construction sites and the projects that have just been inaugurated.
The north of Côte d’Ivoire, long marginalized, is now the focus of particular attention from government and international development agencies. The series of attacks in 2020 and 2021, unclaimed and attributed by authorities and security experts to Sahelian jihadist groups, is at the origin of this reversal.
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In addition to the basic needs of the population, youth employment is an absolute priority in order to prevent young people from the north from joining the jihadist groups rampant in the subregion. At the beginning of January, President Alassane Ouattara also decreed that 2023 should be “the year of youth”.
surprises Faced with the scale of the terrorist attacks and the fear of seeing a jihadist hotbed emerge on their soil, the authorities first tried to consolidate their security measures: revising the military map in favor of remote regions, building barracks, Deployment of special forces, procurement of military equipment, reorganization of the secret service, granting a 13th month’s salary to soldiers.
“sleeping cells”
So many actions that, according to Abidjan, made it possible not to record an attack in 2022, while at the same time Benin and Togo experienced an increasing deterioration of the security context in their northern part. But “the threat is still there,” recall security specialists, region experts and politicians concerned about the existence of “sleeping cells.” In December 2022, armed groups carried out attacks on villages in southern Burkina Faso across the border, leading to the arrival of dozens of refugees.
Convinced that military response cannot do everything and that inaction partly explains the appeal of jihadist groups, the government, with the support of several international donors, including France, launched a plan in January 2022 in favor of young people in the amount of 32 billion CFA francs (around 49 million euros) over three years. The six regions in the north of the country that Bounkani benefits from.
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