First Ivorian Civil War
| First Ivorian Civil War | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Armed insurgents in a technical. |
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
 Ivory Coast Young Patriots of Abidjan militia Liberian mercenariesSupported by:  Russia Bulgaria  Belarus
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New Forces |
 France UNOIC
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| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
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Laurent Gbagbo YPA militia: Charles Blé Goudé |
Guillaume Soro |
Jacques Chirac Kofi Annan
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| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
| 200+ government soldiers 100+ militias 1,200+ civilians |
300+ rebels | 15 French soldiers 1 UN peacekeeper |
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French military / UN peacekeepers |
FANCI (Government troops) / New Forces (FN) rebels / Young Patriots of Abidjan militia |
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|---|---|---|
| Dead | 13 French Army soldiers, 2 aid workers, 1 UN observer, 1 UN peacekeeper |
(Estimated) 200+ FANCI Government troops, 400+ rebels/militia, 1,200+ civilians |
| Wounded | 55 | 1,500+ |
The First Ivorian Civil War was a conflict in the Ivory Coast (also known as Côte d'Ivoire) that began in 2002. Although most of the fighting ended by late 2004, the country remained split in two, with a rebel-held Muslim north and a government-held Christian south. Hostility increased and raids on foreign troops and civilians rose. As of 2006[update], the region was tense, and many said the UN and the French military failed to calm the civil war.
The Côte d'Ivoire national football team was credited with helping to secure a temporary truce when it qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and brought warring parties together.
The United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire began after the civil war calmed, but peacekeepers have faced a complicated situation and are outnumbered by civilians and rebels. A peace agreement to end the conflict was signed on 4 March 2007.
The Ivorian elections took place in October 2010 after being delayed six times. Fighting resumed on 24 February 2011 over the impasse on the election results, with the New Force rebels capturing Zouan-Hounien, and clashes in Abobo, Yamoussoukro and around Anyama
The civil war revolves around a number of issues.
First, the end of the 33-year presidency of Félix Houphouët-Boigny forced the nation to grapple with the democratic process for the first time. Houphouët-Boigny had been president since the country's independence, and so the nation's political system was bound tightly to his personal charisma, and political and economic competence. The political system was forced to deal with open, competitive elections without Houphouët-Boigny from 1993 onward.
Then, the large number of foreigners in Côte d'Ivoire, and Ivorians of somewhat recent foreign descent, created an important issue of voting rights. Twenty-six percent of the population was of foreign origin, particularly from Burkina Faso, a poorer country to the north. Many of these had been Ivorian citizens for two generations or more, and some of them, of Mandinka heritage, can be considered native to the northern part of what is now known as Côte d'Ivoire. These ethnic tensions had been suppressed under the strong leadership of Houphouët-Boigny, but surfaced after his death. The term Ivoirity, originally coined by Henri Konan Bédié to denote the common cultural identity of all those living in Côte d'Ivoire came to be used by nationalist and xenophobic politics and press to represent solely the population of the southeastern portion of the country, particularly Abidjan.
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