Highlights: With the CAN period over, “evictions” – the destruction of informal neighborhoods by the authorities – have resumed at a frantic pace in Ivory Coast. After an area of the Yopougon Gesco district, it was the popular district of Boribana which was completely razed. The authorities intend to recover land belonging to the public domain. The opposition, the FPI, and the National Human Rights Council are calling for an immediate end to these eviction operations.

With the CAN period over, “evictions” – the destruction of informal neighborhoods by the authorities – have resumed at a frantic pace in the economic capital. After an area of the neighborhood…

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Ivory Coast: the CAN curtain falls, “eviction” operations have resumed

With the CAN period over, “evictions” – the destruction of informal neighborhoods by the authorities – have resumed at a frantic pace in the economic capital.

After an area of the Yopougon Gesco district, it was the popular district of Boribana which was completely razed.

The authorities intend to recover land belonging to the public domain.

If the destruction of this neighborhood had been announced, residents say they were surprised by the arrival of the bulldozers early Friday morning.

The operation leaves nearly 30,000 people without alternative housing.

The opposition, the FPI, and the National Human Rights Council are calling for an immediate end to these eviction operations.

Listen - 01:23

Ivory Coast: “eviction” operation in the neighborhood © François Hume-Ferkatadji / RFI

By: RFI Follow

with our correspondent in Abidjan,

François Hume-Ferkatadji

Thousands of houses destroyed, and populations wandering.

After sixty years of existence, the Boribana district has completely disappeared.

At the end of the day, Friday, bulldozers - protected by police vehicles - destroyed the last buildings still standing.

Now, a vast pile of rubble extends over a strip several hundred meters long along the edge of the lagoon.

This man observes the backhoe destroying before his eyes the house in which he had lived for twenty years.

“

It’s a shock!”
We don't know where to go

...

Pablo Gavi, is a “plasterer”, he works in telephone repair.

He is sitting on a large white bundle in which he managed to gather some belongings despite the police firing tear gas, aiming to keep the residents away from their homes.

“

There were many injured, there was even one seriously injured person who had to go to hospital.

..”

Last night, Diara Aboubacar was lucky enough to be able to sleep at a friend's house, who lives nearby.

Under the accusing eye of auxiliaries armed with clubs, also called "loubards", he testifies: "

We just asked not to gas because of the children and to save a minimum of our property, but unfortunately, we did not We weren't listened to, we lost everything!”

This mother spent the night on Boulevard de la Paix with her daughter, her sister and her nieces and nephews: “

We have children and we don’t know where to go... It’s not good for the country..."

According to the public-private partnership steering committee, the old district of Boribana, built more than fifty years ago, should give way to luxury hotels, a marina, a water park and residential and commercial areas .

At the beginning of January, residents of the village of Boribana, in the autonomous district of Abidjan, in Côte d'Ivoire (which has nearly 28,000 inhabitants) were warned of their upcoming expulsion.

Read also Ivory Coast: residents denounce abusive demolitions in connection with the CAN

The village of Boribana, in the autonomous district of Abidjan, in Ivory Coast, has nearly 28,000 inhabitants and is threatened with destruction, from January 8, 2024. © François Hume-Ferkatadji / RFI

Ivory Coast: the CAN curtain falls, “eviction” operations have resumed

Ivory Coast: the CAN curtain falls, “eviction” operations have resumed

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