The information only emerged in recent days, but on August 22, the Ivorian authorities had already frozen the assets of 29 people suspected of being involved in financing or organizing terrorist projects. The order by the Minister of Finance and Budget, Adama Coulibaly, took effect for a renewable period of six months, states the document distributed by the National Cell for the Processing of Financial Information (Centif). Under a decree establishing financial sanctions for individuals suspected of financing terrorism, adopted in May, the order states that it is “ prohibits any legal or natural person located on Ivorian territory from making available to interested parties goods, funds and other financial resources ».
The 29 names listed are all men, aged between 24 and 61, and most of them reside in Côte d’Ivoire. Seven are Ivorian citizens, fifteen are Burkinabés and five Malians, but the list also includes a Gambian and a Mauritanian. The first name cited, Adou Guindo, was an influential Malian trader living in the very chic Riviera Palmeraie district of Abidjan, opposite the new military camp of Akouédo. Most of the others, however, are unknown: traders, bus or tricycle drivers, breeders, cattle sellers, cowherds or butchers, imams or marabouts…
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More surprisingly, a certain Pegnanchière Yeo, an Ivorian, is a chief sergeant of water and forests in Dabakala, in the Bandama Valley region (north-central). He was charged on several counts, the document states, including ” terrorist acts »the recruitment, organization, financing and preparation of acts of terrorism, as well as the ” illegal possession of first category weapons and munitions of war”. Another Ivorian, Timon Pale, charged on the same grounds, is a prison guard at the Daloa civil prison. As for the only Gambian, Faal Mouctarr Sidat, alias “Daddy Fall”, he is an ex-soldier, president of the Africa Rise Again foundation.
No jihadist attacks since 2021
In recent months, around ten suspected jihadists have been arrested by the Ivorian armed forces in the border area of Burkina Faso, in Doropo and Téhini, in the Kafolo area, and then transferred to Abidjan. Their identities have not been revealed and it is still unknown at this stage whether they are the same people as those mentioned in the August 22 decree.
The move comes as Ivory Coast, which has not suffered a jihadist attack since 2021, seeks to contain the spread of the threat from terrorist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in the Sahel on its northern border. The country is hosting a steady influx of Burkinabe refugees fleeing attacks in their country. There are now more than 59,000 of them, mainly women and children, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
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The common borders with Burkina Faso and Mali are ” “hard to hold”Ivorian Defense Minister Téné Birahima Ouattara recently said in an interview with Young Africabringing Ivory Coast to ” to barricade oneself » so that ” “The terrorists who are in difficulty, mainly in Burkina Faso, cannot settle on our soil and commit new attacks”. All for ” “to prevent the events that occurred in Kafolo or Grand-Bassam from happening again”recalled the minister, in reference to the assault on an army barracks which left around ten dead in June 2020 in Kafolo, and to the jihadist attack of March 13, 2016 in the seaside resort of Grand-Bassam, claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, where 19 civilians were killed.
