Ousmane Sawadogo carefully tends a little plot of earth at a centre for displaced people in western Côte d’Ivoire, waiting for seasonal rains to begin and for the day he can return to his cocoa and coffee plantation northeast of here.
“We were informed that a peace accord was reached,” said Sawadogo, 45, who was born in Burkina Faso. “I truly hope that the day we leave will arrive.”
Waiting has become a part of his life. He has been at the displaced center in Guiglo for two years after fleeing inter-communal clashes tied to the country’s political problems. “It is as if my freedom has been taken from me,” he said.
The accord, signed last month between the government of President Laurent Gbagbo and New Forces rebels, provides for a new prime minister to help lead the country toward elections by the end of the year. The new premier, Guillaume Soro, leader of the New Forces, took up his post on Wednesday. Analysts say it is one of the more positive signs for genuine peace in Côte d’Ivoire after several failed accords.
As the peace plan moves forward, so to do efforts to resettle the tens of thousands of people who have been displaced by the conflict in the country. Last week some 300 displaced people returned to their homes in the western town of Touleupleu with the assistance of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Overcoming history
The peace plan provides for the identification of undocumented Ivorians, including both Burkinabe and the descendants of Burkinabe with legitimate claims for Ivorian citizenship.
Identity is at the heart of the Ivorian conflict and displaced people planning to return to their homes hope the peace deal will be strong enough to maintain stability. Inter-communal clashes in western Côte d’Ivoire have claimed scores of lives in recent years.
Tension had been growing in Côte d’Ivoire in the 1980s and 1990s between Ivorians and migrants who the former president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, had invited to help build the country. But as the economy took a downturn, the competition for resources increased.
The anger found expression in politics. A failed coup in September 2002, indirectly linked to the citizenship issue, led to the country being split between a rebel-held north and government run south.
Driven from the land
Among the people displaced by the conflict are nearly 47,000 people who have sought shelter with host families in the town of Duekoué and 7,000 others living at the displaced center in Guiglo, according to IOM.
“Here we wait for the World Food Programme (WFP) to give us something to eat at the end of each month,” said Sawadogo with his two-year-old son beside him. “We need to learn how to manage the rations for our families but we worry as the end of the month approaches.”
Many displaced say they feel trapped in a cycle of dependence. Raphael Kouassi, 34, was displaced along with his wife and three children and is now being hosted by a family in Duekoué.
“The host family cannot always house us, feed us and take care of us,” he said. “We often need to go into town and make a bit of money to have a meal.”
Starting over
The new peace deal may bring a new set of problems. “Now they say we are going to return but will we have the right to our plantations?” asks Kouassi.
Michel Tia, head of the regional IOM bureau in Duekoué, said the agency was trying to accelerate the return process to further help people like Kouassi and his family who do not receive the same assistance as those in the displaced camp in Guiglo.
Humanitarian organisations held negotiations with landowners to help ease people back into their communities but many challenges remain.
“Houses are nonexistent in the villages they are returning to,” said Tia. “Everything was destroyed. We have thought of putting up tents. The displaced [at the Guiglo center] are used to that and afterwards we will think about rehabilitating the houses to settle them definitively.”
Amadou Malgré Ouédraogo, 60, is one of the leaders of the Burkinabe community at the Guiglo camp. He said his garden of peppers, beans and eggplant is embarrassing compared to the hectares he once farmed. But he is resolved to restart his life once he returns to his village.
“I lost everything and now in the name of peace we are obliged to accept the situation,” he said. “But that will not be easy if they do not guaranty us a minimum of land to cultivate.”
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
