politics
Ivory Coast Army Begins Patrols on Burkina Faso Border After Negotiations
France 24 accompanied Ivorian troops after months of negotiations. The patrol followed repeated VDP crossings and territorial claims along the poorly defined frontier.
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The Ivorian army conducted patrols along its northeastern border with Burkina Faso after receiving permission following several months of negotiations, France 24 reported. The Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland, auxiliary forces supporting the Burkinabé army, have carried out regular and sometimes violent incursions into Ivorian territory, France 24 reported.
Some VDPs have claimed that certain Ivorian villages actually belong to Burkina Faso, France 24 reported.
The VDPs were reportedly responsible for the deaths of more than 1,200 civilians in Burkina Faso between 2023 and 2025, according to Human Rights Watch data cited by France 24. That figure is twice the number of civilians killed by the terrorist groups the VDPs were created to fight, the same Human Rights Watch data showed.
Tension has become a permanent reality in northeastern Ivory Coast along the border with Burkina Faso, France 24 reported.
The border is poorly defined and difficult to control, France 24 reported. The patrols occurred at a time when political tensions between Burkina Faso's Ibrahim Traoré and Ivory Coast's Alassane Ouattara are at their highest in years, France 24 reported. France 24 journalists Julia Guggenheim, Damien Koffi and M'ma Camara accompanied the Ivorian army on the assignment.
