DAKAR, Senegal — On Thursday, the government of Ivory Coast declared the prohibition of all student unions, a decision that followed the tragic deaths of two students and the detention of 17 individuals after a clash between police and a student group associated with influential figures in the country.
The announcement of the ban coincides with a government operation that targeted student accommodations overseen by the Fédération Estudiantine et Scolaire de Côte d’Ivoire (FESCI), a student union alleged to have ties to these fatalities.
According to the National Security Council, the police made significant findings during their operation, which included discovering substantial weapons stockpiles along with numerous “illegal businesses” within the student housing complex located at the University of Abidjan. The crackdown specifically aimed at the leadership of FESCI, with current general secretary Sié Kambou taken into custody concerning the homicide allegations, as mentioned in a statement by the chief prosecutor, Koné Oumar.
Court documents indicated that “no crime can be committed in the FESCI environment without the named Sié Kambou being informed of it.” This crackdown was a direct response to the violence that erupted last month leading to the death of Agui Deagoué, a FESCI member and rival of Kambou’s, whose abduction from a street encounter en route to a meeting raised alarms.
FESCI was established in 1990 as a student organization, finding itself quickly in opposition to then-president Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who had ordered the arrest of its leaders under accusations of conducting illegal meetings and protests. Following the rise of Laurent Gbagbo to power in 2000, FESCI gained favorable status and was alleged to have acted with impunity, attacking opposition supporters both on-campus and off.
After Gbagbo’s refusal to concede the 2011 presidential election, violence broke out, in which FESCI and its former leaders were implicated in assaults against the opposition. One notable former leader, Charles Blé Goudé, was tried for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court but was acquitted in 2019.
“FESCI was an avant-garde association serving students and pupils in Côte d’Ivoire,” noted Julien-Geoffroy Kouao, a political analyst based in Abidjan. “Unfortunately, today it has deviated to become an association whose instruments of action are violence.” In the mid-2010s, FESCI started to gain control over student housing across the nation, with students claiming they charged excessively high rents for often cramped and poorly maintained accommodations.
Nonetheless, some voices have defended FESCI, asserting that the actions of certain individuals should not tarnish the entire organization. Local politician Désiré N’Guessan Kouamé indicated that while some label it a criminal organization, many within any association may not represent the whole accurately. “Today, some people call it a criminal organization. Fine, but we must recognize that in any organization or society, there are black sheep,” Kouamé remarked.
In the wake of the National Security Council’s decision, governmental personnel commenced the demolition of FESCI’s headquarters. However, considering FESCI’s role in managing student housing, several students expressed skepticism regarding whether these actions would effectively dismantle the organization’s influence or operations.