The six shoeless thieves that robbed the widow’s house in the well-to-do suburb of Cote d’Ivoire’s main city Abidjan took off with all her money and jewellery after scaring the guard out of his wits with their AK-47 assault rifles. “They tied up the watchman, took his key and opened the gate,” said Rene Kanga, still shaken from the night attack that left his widowed aunt without the cash she had laid out for her husband’s funeral. The thieves were all young, said Kanga, and clad in t-shirts and military camouflage trousers and targeted several houses in the neighbourhood that night. “They were barefoot, so you wouldn’t hear them, and they just broke into the house and tied us all up, saying they’d kill us if we made a sound,” Kanga said. “There is just no security in Abidjan anymore.” The cheap but durable AK-47 has been the firearm of choice for generations of armies, rebels and child soldiers alike across West Africa. And in Cote d’Ivoire, three years into a conflict where rebel forces hold the northern half of the country, the assault rifles are increasingly being used in armed robberies in southern, government-controlled Abidjan. Every morning, the back page of daily newspaper Soir Info serves up detailed and often gruesome accounts of hold-ups and robberies to thousands of curious Abidjan residents. Although crime was rampant in the late nineties too, analysts say criminals are getting tougher and tend to use heavier weapons – in particular AK-47s. Worse, victims who resist giving up their money or car are often executed on the spot. And government security forces are among the offenders, according to a recent UN report on human rights, carrying out summary executions with impunity. Though official crime data is not available, a survey of international personnel by Mercer Human Resources Consulting published earlier this year earmarked Abidjan as the most dangerous international posting in the world for expatriate staff, after the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Following a resumption of hostilities last November, angry anti-French mobs took to the streets targeting the homes and businesses of foreigners and subscriptions to private security companies shot up as a result. “We can hardly keep up with demand,” said Francois Gomis of the international security company Group4Securicor, whose white-and-red logo is popping up on spike-topped gates and fences across the city. “Before the crisis, we had ordinary thieves, guys who’d commit robberies with a pistol, a sawn-off hunting rifle or a machete,” said Gomis. “Now, the situation has brought us another category of criminals: commandos with camouflage gear and AK-47s.” “It’s a new phenomenon, really. Most attacks are targeted – the thugs seek out the homes of rich traders, businessmen, and former ministers,” he said. While the rich are increasingly targeted for their cash, the number of Ivorians living below the poverty line has risen from less than 34 percent in 1998 to over 40 percent today, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
Cote d'Ivoire's main city, Abidjan, is built on a lagoon |
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