Is Côte d'Ivoire facing religious radicalism?

Côte d’Ivoire seems to be less prone to religious radicalism than other states in the region, but there are reasons to be increasingly vigilant on the issue.

Religious radicalism in Côte d’Ivoire has not, for the moment, reached the scale seen elsewhere in the region. However, the country is not immune to the phenomenon. One example is the influence that Pentecostalists had on the hardline posture adopted by the former regime of Laurent Gbagbo during the 2010-11 post-electoral crisis. The existence of a Wahhabi Islam current in the country, together with the adhesion of the great majority of Lebanese living in Côte d’Ivoire to the Hezbollah movement in the Middle East, further underline the need to be increasingly vigilant on this issue.

Author

William T. Assanvo is a senior researcher in the Conflict Prevention and Risk Analysis Division in the ISS’s Dakar office. Prior to joining the ISS, William worked with the Mano River Union Secretariat as a peace and security expert. He also held several consultancy positions, notably with Global Integrity, the Centre for Strategies and Security for the Sahel Sahara (Centre4S), and the UK Transparency International Defence and Security Programme. He founded the African Diplomacy Observatory, an initiative aimed at monitoring and providing analysis on a range of diplomatic, security, defence, economic, trade, human rights, and environment issues relating the Africa. From 2008-2011 he worked as a programme/research assistant with the International Security Advisory Team (ISSAT), a multi-donor initiative set up within the Geneva-based Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) to support international assistance to SSR efforts.