In the Ivoirian village of Yopohué (Gopa), a distressingly common dispute over land ownership escalated into an interethnic battle, drawing dozens of people into a bloody conflict and injuring numerous people who had no personal interest in the land. 

In March 2024, a young man asked his parents to support him in setting up a rice farm near their home. They agreed as their family was a member of the indigenous (autochtone) group (Bétés), those who claimed the area as their historical home, and saw the land as their natural birthright. However, in undertaking the project, they failed to consult their neighbors from the Baoulé ethnic group (historically from central Côte d’Ivoire), who had been living there for decades and said they had a legitimate claim to the land through prior purchases and agreements. When the young man went to measure his farmland, these Baoulé objected and told him to stop. 

The two groups fell into a tense conflict. Shortly after this first incident, a Baoulé teacher and his young nephew approached Gopa on his motorbike. He was on his way to teach at a rural school on the other side of the village and planned to cross through as usual. A group of young Bété men, upset over the Baoulés’ refusal to cede the land to their kinsman, had blocked the road. Brandishing machetes, clubs, and hunting rifles, they refused to let him pass. A fight broke out, and both the teacher and his young nephew were injured. 

The teacher called on nearby Baoulé family and friends for help. They arrived ready to retaliate. When they found a Bété man working in his field, they attacked him and tied him up, despite his not having any connection to the previous conflicts. 

A government official from the Yopohué subprefecture had come to Gopa the same day to try to resolve the original land dispute, but seeing the escalation in tensions, he called for support from the peace committee set up with NDI’s help in Gagnoa, the capital of the department in which Gopa and Yopohué are found. This committee was made up of representatives from all the major ethnic groups and included men, women, young people and older community leaders. NDI had trained them in conflict mediation and prevention earlier in the year. 

The committee sent a delegation that included the committee’s president, who is a woman from an ethnic group considered close to the Bété in the area, and a male member who is the head of the Agni/Baoulé community in the region. They led an all-day mediation session in Gopa from 9am to 7pm. The chiefs of the ethnic groups in conflict, the youth who were involved in the fighting, and the aspiring rice farmer’s family discussed the issue. Everyone involved provided their perspective and listened to the others. They all agreed in the end that each side had erred and that a peaceful solution was needed. The Bété and Baoulé families involved in the land dispute agreed to invite government agents to assess the merits of each group’s claims to the land and to abide by the decision. Both sides took up a collection to pay for the agents’ travel costs to come to make their assessment. 

This was the first time that the committee had come to Yopohué (Gopa), and community members affirmed that the existence of a neutral arbiter that represented both sides’ interests was important and would help to avoid future conflict, as they could be confident that there would be a means of resolving their issues peacefully. 

As the peace committee president told the residents of Gopa, “The role of the peace committee is to ensure that conflicts cease in the region, and even to anticipate any kind of conflict. Above all, the committee has no bias, it is not there to pass any judgment, but to help us all live together whether autocthone or non-autochtone.” While land demarcation and ownership remains an ongoing source of conflict in the area, the committee’s work is helping to prevent violence and channel disputes through institutions that promote peace. 

Authors: Basile Yao, Program Associate in Gagnoa, and Lindsay Robinson, Program Director for the Central and West Africa team

NDI’s engagement with this program is implemented with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

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