Today, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) published a Country of Origin Information (COI) report, Country Focus on Côte d’Ivoire. The report provides information on selected topics, relevant for the international protection status determination of Ivorian applicants. Between December 2016 and April 2019, more than 27 000 Ivorian applications were registered in the EU+ countries.¹

The EASO COI Country Focus report on Côte d’Ivoire provides general background information on the West African country, namely on geography, population, ethnic and religious groups, including the emergence of the concept of ‘Ivoirité’ (‘Ivorianness’ or ‘Ivorians First’). The report further provides a brief historical overview of the recent political situation, as well as context information on the two periods of civil unrest (2002-2007; 2010-2011). Next, the security situation in the country is discussed, focusing on the western regions of Côte d’Ivoire, on inter-ethnic conflicts and on criminality, specifically criminal youth gangs, called microbes). The last chapter is dedicated to some specific human rights issues in the country, namely the situation of LGBTI persons, women (including domestic and sexual violence, FGM/C, and forced and early marriage) and trafficking in human beings.

The EASO COI report Côte d’Ivoire Country Focus was drafted by COI researchers from Switzerland, State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), Division Analysis, and Italy, Ministry of Interior, Italian National Commission for the Right of Asylum, International and EU Affairs, COI Unit.

The report was reviewed by EASO and COI researchers from the following national asylum authorities: France, French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA), Division of Information, Documentation and Research (DIDR); Norway, Landinfo, and The Netherlands, Immigration and Naturalisation Service, Office for Country of Origin Information and Language Analysis (OCILA). In addition, an external review was carried out by Dr Marie Miran-Guyon, Lecturer at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), researcher, and author of numerous publications on Côte d’Ivoire. This report was drafted and reviewed in accordance with EASO’s COI Report Methodology. In line with this methodology, country information from a wide variety of sources is provided, while refraining from making any international protection assessments or policy conclusions.

The report can be downloaded from the EASO COI portal.

¹EU Member States plus Norway and Switzerland
Cover photo: © Mariam Dembélé, Abidjan (December 2016)