In Côte d'Ivoire, the bodies of victims of post-election violence in 2011 have been returned to their families. Objectives: to allow them to mourn and relaunch national reconciliation.
They will be able, more than a decade later, to mourn. But the families of the victims of the post-election violence of 2010 and 2011 in Côte d'Ivoire will not have answers to the questions they have been asking for years. This Wednesday morning, the bodies of victims of the violence that took place in March 2011 were returned to their respective families. Bodies that were transported from the Ivory grave of Treichville to three localities: Guiglo, Blolequin and Toulepleu.
From a symbolic point of view, this repatriation of the bodies is of paramount importance: ceremonies were organized in these three municipalities, with the aim of showing the will to launch the long-awaited national reconciliation. Above all, this should allow "residents to mourn" their loved ones who died in 2011, in the words of Amadou Coulibaly, spokesperson for the Ivorian government.
If, according to official figures, the post-electoral crisis at that time caused more than 3 deaths, this restitution today concerns 000 bodies, which had been exhumed eight years ago, before being sent to Abidjan. An investigation had been launched into this post-election crisis and autopsies had been performed on these bodies.
If the families of the victims will therefore be able to grieve, it will not be total: the autopsy reports have in fact never been communicated to the families of the victims. In addition to the restitution of the bodies, the relatives of the victims should also be compensated.
At the end of 2022, Patrick Achi went to Duékoué, in the west of the country. The Prime Minister had assured that the families would receive compensation from the State, as has already been the case for several thousand families of victims who received 1 million CFA francs.
How to turn one of the darkest pages in the contemporary history of Côte d'Ivoire? For their part, Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara, the leaders of the two parties who clashed in 2011, are also trying to reconcile. Several meetings have already taken place between the president and his predecessor.