SUMMARY
MPIGO (Mouvement Populaire Ivoirien du Grand Ouest, Ivorian Popular Movement for the Great West) was a rebel group active in the western part of Ivory Coast. The group emerged on 28 November 2002, at a point when the country had been in the midst of an intra-statearmed conflict for almost three months.
The origins of the MPIGO were for a long time veiled in obscurity. When they surfaced, taking the key western town Danané near the Liberian border, they claimed to be a purely Ivorian movement seeking to overthrow the government and to avenge the death of General Guei, the country’s former military ruler (1999-2000) who was shot dead when the Ivorian conflict first erupted in September 2002. However, it soon became apparent that the MPIGO comprised a large number of Liberian and Sierra Leonean fighters and it is now clear that the group emerged with the direct assistance of Liberian’s then president Charles Taylor. Some of Taylor’s most senior commanders trained and organised the movement and it had strong linkages to Sierra Leonean former RUF (Revolutionary United Front) warlord Sam Bockarie. Thus, apart from including Ivorians seeking political goals, the movement was also a vehicle for regional actors. While the Liberian and Sierra Leonean fighters appear to have been lured into the conflict with promises of salary or a carte blanche for looting, the reason for Taylor’s involvement can be found in the dynamics in the region at that time. To the west of Ivory Coast, entangled conflicts were fought in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Actors in each state supported groups in neighbouring countries, causing the conflicts to feed of each other and Taylor’s support for the MPIGO is linked by most analysts to Ivorian president Gbagbo’s increased support initially to Liberian rebel group LURD (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy) and later to the break-away group MODEL (Movement for Democracy in Liberia).
There are strong indications that the group also cooperated with fellow Ivorian rebel groups MPCI (Mouvement Patriotique de Côte dIvoire, Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast) and MJP (Mouvement pour la Justice et la Paix, Movement for Justice and Peace). Analysts argue that the groups appear to have coordinated attacks and offensives, especially in 2002. However, the relationship between the three movements was volatile and in 2003, when reports of MPIGO’s Liberian and Sierra Leonean fighters’ abuses against the civilian population started to surface, cooperation turned to open conflict for some months. The MPCI leadership decided that the Liberians and Sierra Leoneans were a political liability and proceeded to push them out of the country. Thus, by late 2003, MPIGO were severely weakened.
The MPIGO had a distinct ethnic profile. The Ivorian part of the group was largely made up of people from the Yacouba ethnic group, and apart from avenging the death of General Guei (also a Yacouba) and the overthrow of the regime, the group at the outset also stated that it fought to defend the rights of the Yacouba people. The Liberian component almost exclusively comprised people from the Gio ethnic group, the same group as the Yacouba, but found on the other side of the border.
The – at least nominal –leadership of the movement was controlled by the Ivorian section of the group. In line with its statements about avenging the death of Guei, the founder of the MPIGO was a former close aide to Guei, N’dri N’guessan, alias Felix Doh. Doh remained leader of the group through the first months of 2003, during which relations between him and the Liberian and Sierra Leonean forces within the group worsened. There are different accounts of what actually caused the friction, with some citing power struggles and others claiming that it was due to Doh’s efforts to curb the abuses of the Liberians and Sierra Leoneans. Subsequently Doh was killed on 25 April 2003, allegedly at the hands of Sam Bockarie. It is unclear who took over the leadership of the movement after Doh’s death.
By late 2003 two major setbacks had severely weakened the MPIGO: Charles Taylor had lost power in Liberia and most of its Liberian and Sierra Leonean fighters had been driven out of the country. The MPCI had evolved to be the most important rebel group not only in the north, but also in the west. Although the three movements continued to exist officially, they formed a political coalition called Forces Nouvelles (New Forces) under the leadership of Guillaume Soro, leader of MPCI.
The MPIGO has been involved in the intra-state, non-state and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
