North-eastern Côte d’Ivoire: between uncertainty and armed jihadist engagement

The gradual evolution of security issues in Côte d’Ivoire can be seen around a bundle of representations and myths that Islamist doctrinaire have theorized elsewhere. However, the evaluation of the demonstrations of force of small armed groups in the north shows the capacity of these groups to combine concept, slogan and realities on the ground. In this case, for two years, the Ivorian security doctrine adversity which lays the foundations for its social significance. The repeated assaults on army positions indicate an almost unstoppable will to engage; the insurrectionary zest, enthusiasm and daring are lubricated by a faith in the hereafter, part of the quest for personal salvation after death. This dimension, largely underestimated when designing security policies on the continent, also explains the speed of jihadist dissemination within communities whose ethnic diversity, differences in environment and lifestyles defied the idea. even a standardization of behavior and of the relationship to the Other.

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Sahel: without President Deby.

Very often the danger arises from where it is the least expected! In the Sahel, the violent death of President Deby is a stark confirmation of that. The unexpected disappearance of the warrior president, Idriss Deby, has reshuffled the cards across the region. Today, with two political transitions underway, in Mali and Chad, political and military issues have multiplied while terrorism is strengthening its base and extending its front. More than ever, the Sahel is at a crossroads.

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Terrorism: Cote d’Ivoire between insidious dissemination and militarization of the response.

Lassina Diarra, researcher on Islamism and terrorism in West Africa, for Centre4s.

Geographically and demographically as well, Cote d’Ivoire is largely a continuum of the Sahel-Sahara space. That location induces a share of vulnerability, especially since the country has been hurt, more than once, with assaults by non-national attackers (Grand-Bassam March 2016 and Kafolo June 2020) thus revealing the nature and configuration that exogenous terrorist threat poses to the country. However, the statement of France Intelligence Director, on February 1, 2021, puts that assumption into perspective. He stated that many coastal states, including Côte d’Ivoire, are facing a major process of terrorist groups dissemination. Admittedly, the Cote d’Ivoire has not yet reached the degree or the intensity of violence omnipresence observed in the Sahel, though a number of actions and alerts lead to substantiate that fear. Based on both Antonio Gramsci thinking – the theory of cultural hegemony – and the literature on local Islam, as a theoretical framework, this paper analyzes and tries to identify the leanings of the sliding from the field of piety to that of social belligerence, in Côte d’Ivoire, especially in a context of political tensions which mask, or makes less sensitive, the propensity of sectarian friendliness of some social groups.

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