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Since the death of the country's strong man
Félix Houphouët-Boignys in 1993, a long period of
political unrest followed, in which politicians played
on ethnic contradictions for their own purposes. In
2002, civil war broke out, which in practice divided the
country into two parts: a southern one, ruled by Laurent
Gbagbo who won the presidential election in 2000, and a
rebel-controlled northern one. Hundreds of thousands
were killed and hundreds of thousands fled before a
fragile peace could be achieved in 2007.
For three decades, the Ivory Coast Democratic
Party (PDCI) was the only allowed party in the
country, but the real power lay with the president
personally and with the state bureaucracy. Officially
there was equality between the groups, but in practice
the president's own people, the baulé, were favored.
Houphouët-Boigny's birthplace of Yamoussoukro was made
capital in 1983, but business and most of the
administration remained in Abidjan.
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ABBREVIATIONFINDER:
List of most commonly used acronyms containing Ivory Coast. Also includes historical, economical and political aspects of the country.
In the 1980s, the economy deteriorated. The
government's savings sparked widespread protests. A
commission led by economist Alassane Ouattara was
commissioned in 1990 to propose less drastic cuts.
Demands for multi-party systems grew and in 1990 the
first multi-party system was held. Opposition politician
Laurent Gbagbo ran for Houphouët-Boigny in the
presidential election but lost big. In the election to
the National Assembly, the ruling party PDCI took 163 of
the 175 seats against nine seats for the Gbagbo Party of
the Ivorian People's Front (FPI).
After the election, a Prime Minister post was set up
that went to Alassane Ouattara. But dissatisfaction with
the government continued and was severely defeated,
leading to new protests. Many people, including several
opposition politicians, were arrested and sentenced to
prison.
 The death of Félix Houphouët-Boigny in 1993 triggered
a power struggle between Prime Minister Alassane
Ouattara and National Assembly Speaker Henri Konan Bédié.
The President had assured himself of support from the
Baulé hierarchy, the National Assembly and the
government, and to some extent also with France and was
elected President. Ouattara moved overseas to become
Vice President of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
in Washington.
Many Ouattara sympathizers had to leave the
government and were replaced by Bédié's supporters.
Several regime-critical journalists were also
imprisoned. However, Bédié, who had previously
criticized Ouattara's economic policies, continued on
the line with, among other things, extensive
privatizations of state-owned enterprises. A devaluation
of the CFA franc regional currency in 1994 had boosted
exports.
In order to strengthen his own power, Bédié
deliberately played on the ethnic contradictions within
the country (see Population and Languages). He stressed
the importance of an "ivory" of society, that is,
important functions should remain with the people from
the core country in the south. This led to a faction
within the ruling PCDI breaking out and forming a new
moderate middle party, the Republican Assembly
(RDR), which had its strongest support in the
Muslim-dominated northern part of the country.
The presidential election in the fall of 1995 became
uneasy. The Bédié government had introduced a new
electoral law that required candidates to prove that
they originated from the Ivory Coast and had lived there
continuously for five years before the election. The law
was directed at Ouattara, who was alleged to have his
roots in Burkina Faso and who had worked abroad for
several years. Bédié won big, but many voters obeyed the
opposition's demand not to vote. At the November
parliamentary elections in November of that year, the
PDCI took 146 of the 175 seats.
When the economy deteriorated again in 1998, Bédié's
popularity declined. In Abidjan there were violent
confrontations between Ouattara's supporters and the
police. In 1999, the military took power in a coup.
Bédié fled the country and dome leader Robert Gueï
proclaimed president. According to Gueï, the purpose of
the coup was to create democracy under civilian rule. He
formed a unity government with representatives of both
PDCI and RDR and FPI. Soon all RDR ministers were
dismissed and a constitutional amendment was made, which
specified that both parents of a presidential candidate
must be born in the country. The law was intended to
exclude Ouattara.
Prior to the 2000 presidential election, the Supreme
Court had disqualified all candidates except Gueï and
FPI leader Laurent Gbagbo. When the results indicated
that Gbagbo would win, Gueï interrupted the vote and
proclaimed himself victorious. The counter-reaction
became violent, Gueï had lost the support of the army
and was forced to flee. According to the Election
Commission, Gbagbo had received just over 59 percent of
the vote, against about 33 percent for Gueï, but turnout
was low, especially in the northern part of the country.
Gbagbo was installed as president and refused to
announce new elections, which RDR demanded. Now bloody
clashes between RDR supporters and the security forces
demanded at least 200 lives. During the election
campaign, Gbagbo had made nationalistic statements
similar to those made by Bédié. The propaganda against
Ouattara also undermined anti-Turkic sentiments that had
long been in Ivory Coast.
The RDR boycotted the parliamentary elections in
December 2000. Not even one in three voters voted and in
most places in the north the election could not be
carried out because of the risk of violence. FPI became
the largest party but did not get its own majority but
formed government with PDCI.
In 2001, the parties agreed to form a new unity
government. But in September 2002, groups of soldiers
made a new revolt in protest against the government's
decision to dismiss them. Struggles broke out in Abidjan
and in the northern cities of Bouaké and Korhogo and
Gueï were killed. Faithful soldiers managed to defeat
the insurgency in Abidjan, but the rebels retained the
grip in the north.
The rebels were led by a group of young officers, who
called themselves the Ivory Coast Patriotic
Movement (MPCI). They demanded Gbagbo's
departure and that new elections should be held. The
government claimed that Burkina Faso supported the
rebels, and security forces and the FPI-loyal militia
were pushing hard against immigrants from neighboring
countries and Muslims from the north.
In October 2002, the rebels controlled half the
country. The government army went on offensive, but the
military successes failed. New unrest erupted in the
West where two rebel groups, the Patriotic Front
of the Great West (MPIGO) and the
Justice and Peace Movement (MJP). for a while
it was stated to control several cities. Both the rebels
and the government side were accused of gross abuses
against the civilian population and hundreds of
thousands of people were forced to flee.
France and the West African cooperation organization
ECOWAS sent soldiers to a peacekeeping force. An
agreement to form a national reconciliation government
was signed in January 2003 and a Muslim politician from
the north was appointed prime minister. The three rebel
groups now joined forces in the Alliance New
Forces (see also Political system). But the
contradictions between the warriors were too great and
the government collapsed.
In March 2004, the opposition defied a demonstration
ban and held a protest meeting in Abidjan. Over 100
people were killed when security forces fired at the
protesters. The FPI-loyal militia groups, called Young
Patriots, were also charged with the shooting. The
following month, the UN Security Council sent a
UNOCI peacekeeping force to the Ivory Coast. It
would, among other things, monitor a buffer zone that
went between rebel and government controlled areas.
In November 2004, government forces attacked
rebel-controlled areas from the air and at least eighty
civilians lost their lives. When a French posting was
bombed and several French soldiers killed, France
responded by knocking out most of the Ivorian air force.
Anti-French riots were fired, police did not intervene,
and at least 20 people were killed when French soldiers
shot into a crowd.
In the same month, the UN Security Council introduced
an arms embargo on the Ivory Coast, which applied to
both the government and the rebels. African Union
mediator, South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki,
succeeded in getting the parties to pledge to abide by
the previous peace treaty. Facing threats of new UN
sanctions, Parliament passed laws paving the way for
Ouattara to stand in the presidential election scheduled
for autumn 2005. However, Gbagbo changed its mind and
refused to approve the laws unless a referendum was
held. At the same time, the rebels in the New Forces did
not agree to being disarmed, as long as the legislative
changes did not take effect.
In April 2005, a new peace agreement was signed,
which meant that all parties would be able to come up
with the candidate they themselves selected. Gbagbo made
this possible by using a statutory clause that allowed
extraordinary measures. The parties again agreed on
disarmament and a new joint army. But the agreement was
not fulfilled and the presidential election was
postponed.
The UN and AU set a time limit for how long Gbagbo
would be allowed to retain power and a transitional
government took office in December 2005 with
representatives of the FPI, RDR and PDCI as well as the
New Forces. In early 2006, a new peace settlement was
made.
That process was also stalled until a new peace
agreement was signed in March 2007 in Burkina Faso's
capital Ouagadougou. According to this, a unifying
government was to be formed, a new joint army leadership
was appointed and elections were held within ten months.
The parties also agreed on a timetable to provide all
residents with ID documents in order to establish new
voting lengths (approximately three million people were
estimated to lack valid papers). The buffer zone,
guarded by the UN and French troops, which had been
established between the north and south would gradually
be phased out and all foreign soldiers would eventually
leave the country.
In April, rebel leader Guillaume Soro took over as
prime minister. The new government included
representatives of the FPI and the New Forces, but also
the RDR and PDCI, some smaller parties and civil society
representatives received ministerial posts. Gbagbo later
approved a law that granted amnesty for crimes committed
during the war.
The work to create a new national defense and the
attempts to get the community service and administration
in the north going slowly, as was the process of
providing people with new ID documents. The same was
true of the disarmament of former rebels. The Gbagbo
side was accused of trying to delay the planned
presidential election. After each delay, the UN Security
Council extended the mandate of the UN force UNOCI and
the French troops.
But progress was also made. In May 2009, the former
rebels handed over the rule of ten northern zones,
including the area around the city of Bouaké, to a civil
administration appointed by the president and in the
fall of that year 6.5 million Ivorians had registered to
vote in the elections. Regular reports, however, of new
disturbances came, and both sides were accused of
acquiring new weapons, despite the arms embargo on the
Ivory Coast.
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