The landscape of Doropo, a small Ivorian town located 12 kilometers from the Burkinabe border, in the Bounkani region, is reduced to three colors: the blue of the sky, the red of the loam and, in between, the green of the pastures which extend as far as the eye can see. A peaceful setting that could make you forget the scenes that sometimes take place there: clandestine gold panning, vehicle holdups and, above all, cattle thefts, the nightmare of the local populations.
A breeder with a wrinkled forehead, who insists on remaining anonymous, points to the skinny oxen grazing between the cocoa plants: “Do you see this herd? It is worth at least 20 million CFA francs [30 500 euros]. These are herds like that, or larger, of 100, 200 oxen, which are stolen and taken to Burkina Faso. »
Livestock theft, which doubled in the area between 2023 and 2024, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), does not fall under ordinary crime. It finances the activities of armed jihadist groups operating in the region, such as the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), but also those of the civilian auxiliaries of the Burkinabe army, the Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP). Both are terrorizing the populations of northeastern Ivory Coast.
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