Civil servants begin return to rebel north after three-year absence

The return of 13 civil servants to the rebel stronghold of Bouake on Thursday marked a first step towards the reestablishment of government administration in northern Cote d’Ivoire, a key condition for presidential elections set later this year. Thirteen staff members of the University of Bouake received the first instalment of a ‘settlement bonus’ from a national pilot committee set up to enable the redeployment of thousands of civil servants who fled northern Cote d’Ivoire at the outbreak of civil war in September 2002. The staffers’ return is part of preparations for the reopening of the university, which Higher Education Minister Cisse Bacongo has scheduled for the end of March. Previous plans to reopen the university were delayed due to political disagreements and logistical problems. Several hundred students paid the enrolment fee in April 2005 but classes never started. An estimated 4,000 students are expected to enrol. In the meantime, the UN mission in Cote d’Ivoire, ONUCI, paid 7.5 million CFA (US $13,500) to rehabilitate the Bouake campus. The bonus for the returned civil servants ranges from 300,000 CFA ($545) to one million CFA depending on level and experience, said Dahie Digbeu, chairman of the pilot committee set up by the prime minister’s office. “It’s a modest sum to allow them to settle in and buy some work tools,” Digbeu explained. “It does not compensate for everything they have lost in the war.” The lecturers are to travel back and forth between Bouake and the main city Abidjan, where they will continue teaching at a provisional campus set up for the nearly 12,000 students who had fled the north.