Yesterday, we carried the first part of Mohamed Doucoure’s story. He is a young Ivorian refugee, who had to flee the economic capital Abidjan in order to save his life. This is the conclusion.

By Bram Posthumus, N’zérékoré, Guinea

“I’m not going to tell you how I got out of Yopougon [a big Abidjan suburb, ed.], but I have bruises everywhere. You can see them on my arms, right?

Next on my mind was: how do I leave town? We got another phone call. One of our nieces called us and said there was a truck parked in an area of Abidjan called Banco One and it was taking people to Bouaké [the former rebel capital in the centre of Ivory Coast, ed.]. It was a cattle truck. They took us, for 15,000 CFA (23 euros). Normally that would cost you 3,500 CFA (just over five euros).”

Roadblocks
What Mohamed did not say but what we need to add here is that in normal times, you pay those five euros for a trip on one of the luxury coaches you can see all over the country, not for the privilege of spending four days standing on a cattle truck that breaks down numerous times. But that was not Mohamed’s biggest worry. He was scared to death of something else.

“Roadblocks. They were everywhere. With Jeune Patriotes. They would check your identity card and let me tell you: it would be better if they found you were carrying drugs, rather than have a card with a Malinké family name on it. They see a name like mine, Mohamed Doucoure, and you become a target for them. Because they will think you voted for Alassane Ouattara.”

Reconciliation and forgiveness
But he made it through and once in the relative safety of the north, Mohamed decided to wait out the rest of the conflict in neighbouring Guinea. But since he arrived here, things back home have changed yet again. We had this conversation 48 hours after the news broke of ex-president Laurent Gbagbo’s arrest and capture, at his residence in Abidjan. What is Mohamed thinking now?

“I won’t lie to you: returning to Abidjan is an option. A tempting option. My life is there, all of it. Yopougon, Cocody where I study, Le Plateau, where I work. My entire life is there. I have listened to president Ouattara’s speech and it has made me more optimistic. He has called for national reconciliation and forgiveness.

Even the people who wanted to harm him have come to the Golf Hotel [Ouattara’s temporary residence, ed.] and he has told them: let us work together. It’s a great step forward.”

False debate
“I will not tell you who I voted for, but let me tell you that I voted for my future. But this whole north-south business is not the issue. We have people from the north who voted for Gbagbo, we have people from the south who voted for Ouattara. People have been killed – for nothing. That is what I deplore most about Ivory Coast. They have imposed a false debate on the society and it has ruined my country.”