SUMMARY
The conflict between the Guéré and the Senufo has its roots in the economic and political crisis which hit the Ivory Coast in the last decades of the 20th century and which resulted in a wave of ethnic tensions.
During the period as a French colony, from 1893 until 1960, the country was organized according to an agricultural production of cocoa-based in the south of the country. As an abundant workforce was constantly requested to support the economic expansion, immigration was highly encouraged. This policy remained in place even after independence. The work opportunities present in the south also attracted people inhabiting the northern parts of the country. As a result, migrations within the country were also common. With the settlement of northern and foreign ethnic groups in the south, it wasn’t long until tensions arose with the local Akan and Bete groups. In the interest of keeping production on as high a level as possible, the French colonizers severely penalized any form of ethnic violence, thus limiting escalation. The further economic development in the post-independence era, increasing the standard of living and improving social services, was enough to maintain a certain level of social cohesion.
By the end of the 1970’s the once strong economy began to fall apart as a global economic recession hit the world. Acting in the belief that the crisis would soon be over, the Government of Ivory Coast continued borrowing large amounts of money to support the development of the country. As the crisis endured, the government was left with enormous debts and without funds. The Ivory Coast quickly found itself in a financial crisis and was close to bankruptcy.
During the same time the country was going through a political crisis. After the death of former president Houphouët-Boigny in 1993, the country was ruled by Konan-Bedié who promoted the Ivorisation process, a nationalistic political process to remove political opposition and to marginalize immigrants by bringing up the question of autochthony. The process also affected people originating from the northern parts of the country since they were not considered as true Ivoirians by the southern population. Northerners were often considered as filthy, inhabiting bad neighborhoods and as being responsible for the country’s high criminality rate. The main difference between the north and the south was however mainly a question of the religion; the north was Muslim and the south Christian.
The rise of poverty, unemployment, and the Ivorisation process opened up for new tensions between the ethnic groups. Foreigners and Northerners became deemed as a threat to the advancement and survival of the more autochthonous groups. As a result, several ethnic conflicts arose during the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century.
Like many other northern groups, Senufo people had a long history of migrating to the southern parts of the country in search of work. Due to the presence of the group both in Mali and Burkina Faso, the Senufo had long been stigmatized as foreigners by the southerners. As opposed to the Senufo, the Guéré belongs to the Krou people, a tribe favored by a succession of governments as one of the true indigenous tribes of the country along with the Akan people.
The non-state conflict between the Guéré and the Senufo is first included in UCDP data in 2005. In May of that year, the killing of four Senufo group members turned ethnic tension into open conflict. In the days following the event, the two groups engaged in reprisal attacks which lasted for a period of ten days. On the third day of fighting, the threshold of 25 battle-related deaths was reached.
