Ivory Coast-Bas-Sassandra: alert! The region at the edge of the embrace.

In the villages of Bas-Sassandra, it is always the fear. Many people would still hide in forests. They hesitate to go into their villages, by fear of reprisals. To know more about it, we contact Kla Nicolas. In this part of Ivory Coast, this young person of around thirty years does not pass unnoticed.

Under the reign of president Laurent Gbagbo, Nicolas was, not only the president of native young people Kroumens du Bas-Sassandra, but especially the president of the Coalition of the patriotic movements to San-Pedro. It was thus him the representative of Charles Blé Goudé in the region. Having passed 45 days in the forest, Nicolas made his reappearance for San-Pedro. A city which he has runs away when the strengths pro-ouattara, helped by the French strengths, took the control. " My return is the outcome of several negotiations led by traditional village chiefs and mayor Nabo Clément ", he explains.

Nicolas indicates that if he was lucky to have the safe life, the other young people on the other hand were killed, quoting names known as Taki Ulrich and Kokotako. " We took weapons to defend ourselves. It is the normal reaction of every person who is attacked ", he justifies itself. Today, tours of raising sensitization led in the region helped to reassure the populations. But the question of weapons always raises problem.

Indeed, the executives of the region are accused of having supplied many weapons to the young people to oppose to the offensive of the coalition UNO-france-rebelles. Of course, they were defeated, but these young people are suspected to hold still weapons hidden in secret locations. " The suspicion always reigns because weapons do not go out ", war chief Bêma Ouattara worries. But this thesis is thrown back(rejected) by Kla Nicolas. " No weapon was distributed to the young people of the region. It is rather weapons which we found abandoned in commissionerships and camps of gendarmerie ", he defends himself.

Koué Gnépa Pascal, leader of central canton of Kroumens of the department of San-Pedro, also supports the same thing. " Many young people returned these weapons ", he explains.   In addition to issues related to the    illegal detention of war weapons, another phenomenon can fire the region. If for these leaders kroumens, the FRCI put acts going to the direction of the social cohesion, it remains that the land disputes constitute the other time bomb. Indeed, Bas-Sassandra still abounds in vast areas of forests. Many non-native populations are installed there.

 They exploit plantations of cocoa and hevea. The late awakening of the natives on the importance of this natural wealth creates conflicts. " We attend settlings of scores. It is much more connected to forests. It is in this way that many young people were unfortunately killed ", Gnépa Pascal denounces. " Villages were destroyed and plundered. What is regrettable, it is that the FRCI (forces pro-ouattra) did not put an act going to this direction. But it those are the same to whom we gave our lands which lead this kind of actions ", adds Kla Nicolas, quoting villages as Djamélé, Moussa Doudougou, Etakoro. Nicolas thus invites the FRCI to end acts of violence on the populations, which acts tend to delay the social cohesion. " Ivory Coast is one and inseparable. We do not owe, on the basis of denunciations slanderous to commit violence on persons ", he adds.