EDUCATION-COTE D’IVOIRE: Belligerents Recruit Child Soldiers

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Marie Chantal Obinde

ABIDJAN, Jan 23 2003 (IPS) - ‘Fatherland TV’, a rebel-run television, shows how new recruits, some as young as 13, go through the rigours of military training in northern Cote d’Ivoire.

One of the recruits, Alpha Soumahoro, a high school dropout from Bouake, the second city of Cote d’Ivoire, which is held by rebels, says he is fighting to restore the ‘dignity’ of his ethnic group, the Dioulas. ‘’The Dioulas have been marginalised. I’m a Dioula and we’re fighting for recognition of our identity. Never again will anyone call us second-class Ivorians,” he says.

In Odienne, a town on the border with Guinea, an army of young boys trains under the watchful eyes of a bulky rebel sergeant. ‘’I was flabbergasted to see several of my students join the rebels and even be proud of it. They prevented me from leaving the town, saying, ‘Sir, we’re in charge now’. They were probably high on drugs. Others, who were more lucid, helped me leave the town with my family,” says a high school teacher from Odienne, who was fleeing the war which erupted on Sep 19, 2002.

Similarly in Abidjan, the commercial hub of Cote d’Ivoire, some 3,000 young recruits have enrolled in the regular army. The students responded to the government’s call, sacrificing their studies for the moment to ‘’save the republic” from rebel threat.

The rebels, who control northern half of the country, have called for the resignation of President Laurent Gbagbo.

Asked whether he will remain in the army after the war is over, Yannick Kouassi – a child soldier – offers what sounds like a well-rehearsed government statement. ‘’We volunteered in the army to defend the nation. The goal is clear: the liberation of our country,” he says.

With schools and universities closed in towns under rebel control, the Ivorian government is trying to deal with the growing number of displaced, many of whom are students.

It is reassigning teachers and students to schools in territories under its control.

Nearly half the country’s schools, colleges and universities are located in the rebel-controlled north, if Daloa, a city in the west, captured by rebels recently, is included, according to Michel Amani N’guessan, the minister of education. The schools in Daloa were closed after the rebels overran the city.

At the beginning of the crisis, some 5,225 pre-school pupils, 403,977 primary students, 84,280 secondary students, and 71,526 teachers had fled the war zones, according to N’guessan.

He says 1,170 new classes will be opened for displaced students.

The situation is worrying parents. ‘’To learn properly, you need a conducive environment that is lacking in Cote d’Ivoire today,” says Ernest Kouadio, a parent, who can barely conceal his annoyance.

International organisations such as the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have promised to help.

Under the arrangement, each displaced teacher will receive a bonus of 50,000 CFA (about 79 U.S. dollars) to settle in a new school environment.

The authorities have also relaxed the once-stringent school-uniform policy, and abolished secondary school enrolment fees to ease hardship.

N’guessan says the World Food Programme has pledged to give the family of every displaced student a bag of rice per month.

‘’We have nothing against the government’s initiative to help the displaced students, but the entire country needs to be made safer, peaceful. Right now we’re going back to school with fears in our hearts. We’re going back with the fear that the dusk-to-dawn curfew, imposed by government after the Sep 19 army mutiny, will reduce the number of school hours. We’re going back with the fear that our children will be forced to knock-off at 4:00 p.m., rushing home through the chaotic traffic jam to beat the curfew deadline,” says a teacher, who refused to be named.

‘’We’re also going back with the fear that we might witness an incident similar to that in which Lama High School in Yopougon (Abidjan) went up in smoke after it was attacked by gunmen late last year,” he says.

Two other rebel groups, formed at the end of November in the west of the country, have yet to sign a cease-fire with the government. According to sources close to the ministry of education, the refusal by the rebels to sign a cease-fire could ruin government’s initiative to reopen schools.

‘’If that happens, it will hurt students badly,” says Moustapha Cisse, a parent who lives in Abidjan.

On Jan 6, displaced students reported, as instructed, to their new schools in Abidjan, but were shocked to find that they had not been offered a place. Officials at the ministry of education say only a few schools had offered places. Some schools, operating evening classes, have been prevented by curfew from enrolling new students.

Guillaume Soro, secretary general of the main rebels of the Patriotic Movement of Cote d’Ivoire (MPCI), also has announced the re-opening of schools in Bouake. But few, including aid agencies, believe the rebels will have the resources to re-open the schools.

Rights groups fear if the displaced students are not offered a place in the school, they will be attracted to join the army, a powerful institution, which is increasingly becoming a way of life in Cote d’Ivoire.

The army mutiny in Cote d’Ivoire has unleashed a wave of xenophobia, directed mainly against people from neighbouring Burkina Faso, who have settled in the north.

Cote d’Ivoire’s 16 million people include 2.2 million Burkinabe, 800,000 Malians and 230,000 Guineans, according to government statistics.

The anti-immigrant feelings in Cote d’Ivoire, once a bastion of stability in West Africa, began after the economic boom, which attracted millions of workers from poorer neighbours.