Student Federation of Côte d'Ivoire

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The Student Federation of Côte d'Ivoire (FESCI) (French: Fédération estudiantine et scolaire de Côte d'Ivoire ) is a youth and student organization in Côte d'Ivoire that human rights organizations accuse of being a violent gang controlled by President Laurent Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI).^[1]

Founded in the early 1990s as a student union, the FESCI was banned by the government of Henri Konan Bedie. Prominent past members included Charles Blé Goudé (Secretary general of FESCI 2001-2003, and later founder and leader of the l’Alliance de la jeunesse patriotique which, like the FESCI, was allegedly involved in xenophobic street violence during the civil war) and Guillaume Soro (Secretary general of FESCI 1995-1998,^[2] now Secretary general of the Forces nouvelles group which rebelled against the ruling party).^[3]

After 1999, the FESCI supported the ruling party, and has been blamed in numerous acts of violence and dozens of murders of the political opponents of the FPI amid waves of attacks on individuals seen as foreign. Human Rights groups also allege the FESCI runs protection rackets^[4] for businesses, students, and scholars operating on the nation's university campuses. The opposition press refers to the group as Fescistes, a play on the word fascists.

In December 2006, Serge Koffi was elected head of the FESCI, which was seen as an internal split between the new leadership, entitled the ’Coalition pour la réhabilitation de la FESCI (COREF)’’, and seen to be controlled by Kacou Brou^[5] and on the other hand, its former patron Charles Blé Goudé and his supporters Jean Yves Dobopieu, Ahoua Stallone and Dacoury Richard.^[6] Early 2007 saw public disorder between these factions, including gunplay on the nation's university campuses.

References

• Racket, abus et terreur sur les campus: Incursion au coeur de la FESCI (French)
• University campus polarised by political violence, IRIN, July 2005
• COTE D'IVOIRE: Violence in University campus, IRIN, February 2007
• Karel Arnaut, De strijd voor een nieuwe natie: 'jeugd' en geweld in Ivoorkust. 2003, Vakgroep Afrikaanse Talen en Culturen, University of Ghent. (Dutch)
• CÔTE D'IVOIRE Voices of women and girls, forgotten victims of the conflict On FESCI Violence, Amnesty International, 2007
• Human Rights Violations by Government Security Forces: 2005 Trends On FESCI Violence, Human Rights Watch, 2006.
• Fesci, syndicat ou mafia? Jeune Afrique. 9 February 2009.
• Des "généraux" sans étoile et plein d'ambition. Jeune Afrique: Fabienne Pompey et Baudelaire Mieu. 9 February 2009.