Village attacks raise tension in cocoa region

Several hundred Malians and Burkinabe have been forced to flee their homes in Cote d'Ivoire's cocoa-growing region of Gagnoa, 300 km west of the commercial capital, Abidjan, after a wave of arson attacks and looting. According to humanitarian sources, the attacks by groups of young men have been going on for three weeks. Witnesses say that as well as Burkinabe and Malians, Ivorian northerners and other Ivorians who had moved to Gagnoa from central Cote d’Ivoire, have also been targeted, losing crops and other property. The violence has been particularly extreme in the village of Mahinadopa, in the Ouragahio region, where around 500 Malians reportedly fled as their shacks and houses went up in flames. Ouaragahio is the home region of President Laurent Gbagbo, who came to power in October 2000. Sources in the area say those who have fled were living in a center in Gagnoa. The local authorities have reportedly asked traditional chiefs to persuade them to go back to their villages. But there were reports of hostile youths blocking any such return. According to reports from Gagnoa, local youths involved in the attacks say they were angered by the refusal of Malians and Burkinabe to sell their produce to newly-created local cooperatives. The Ivorian daily newspaper, "24 HEURES" reported on Tuesday that new measures "of forced expropriation" were being directed at Burkinabe, Malians and Ivorians from the north, notably Dioulas, Sénoufos and Tagbanas. Cocoa planters from the Baoulé ethnic group, originally from the centre of Ivory Coast, have also had long-standing differences with the Bété population of the west. There have also been numerous reports of local landowners demanding high rents from cultivators, CFA 50,000 a hectare (US $90) from outside the region despite having sold the same plots years ago. The Gagnoa region normally contributes one quarter of Cote d’Ivoire’s annual harvest of 1.2. But cocoa producers warn that production remains alarmingly low. The violence around Gagnoa comes as the state is trying to re-establish itself in the west. Prime Minister Seydou Diarra has just authorised the sending of 26 administrators to the west, stressing the need for an end to inter-communal tensions and the prompt resolution of past problems. Cote d'Ivoire has faced political problems since September 2002 when mutinous soldiers staged a coup attempt. The rebel soldiers retreated, seizing control of the north and west of the country. In January, they signed a French-brokered peace agreement which President Laurent Gbagbo acknowledged and joined a broad-based government of national reconciliation in April. But they suspended their participation in the peace process on 23 September, complaining that Gbagbo had failed to delegate sufficient powers to cabinet ministers. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has organised a reconciliation summit between Gbagbo and the rebels in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, on 11 November.