Malian and Ivorian Authorities to Address Challenges Posed by Border Bypassing

Tengrela, Côte d’Ivoire – On 27 March 2024, in the conference room of the Hotel Tenkro in Tengrela, where the preliminary meeting for the workshop on revitalising cross-border cooperation between the Department of Tengrela and the Circle of Kolondiéba, initiated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), took place the day before, Mr Issa Coulibaly, Chief of Canton in Tengrela, spoke about challenges related to bypassing official borders.

“With respect to the phenomenon of border bypasses, which has escalated in recent years, we regularly conduct awareness-raising activities in cross-border villages to encourage people to stop using these irregular routes,” said Mr Issa Coulibaly.

The towns of Tengrela in northern Côte d’Ivoire and Kolondiéba in southern Mali share a border stretching over two hundred kilometres long, with one official crossing point and dozens of bypass roads. These irregular routes are used daily by the local population, who live along the border, to go about their business.

“From 2019 to date, the bypass routes have almost tripled. The number has risen from around twenty to around fifty, following the decision by the authorities in both countries to close their borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This increase further complicates the awareness campaigns we conduct with the defence and security forces, through the Civil-Military Unit (Cellule Civilo-Militaire -CCM)”, added Issa Coulibaly.

Set up by the Ivorian authorities in early 2010, the Civil-Military Unit (CCM) is made up of members of the administration, defence and security forces, administrative, customary and religious authorities, and opinion leaders. The activities of the Civil-Military Unit are now supported by IOM Côte d’Ivoire and its partners through the regional project: “Promoting cross-border cooperation for crisis prevention and strengthening state structures in order to establish or ensure stability in fragile border regions.”

“We welcome this meeting. It will enable populations to work more closely with authorities and combat all forms of smuggling. We have the same families living on both sides of the border. So, we need to work together to achieve our objectives,” stressed Mr Coulibaly, who is calling for lower immunization prices, which he believes would justify the use of bypass routes.

“You pay XOF 8,000 (around USD 13) per person, including XOF 5,500 (around USD 9) for the yellow fever vaccine and XOF 2,500 (around USD 4) for the meningitis vaccine. This is too expensive. We therefore need to lower the price of immunization and continue to conduct regular awareness-raising activities among regular travellers, in collaboration with the Civil-Military Unit,” he highlighted.

Like the Civil-Military Unit, a similar mechanism exists in Mali. These are the Community Prevention Committees (CPC), which play an essential role in strengthening communication between the administrative authorities and border communities. They were set up in various cross-border localities in Mali with the support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), as part of the implementation of the project: “Improving border management and community resilience to cross-border organized crime in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, with a focus on the central Mediterranean route.” These are local committees responsible for dialogue with the authorities and humanitarian actors on issues of security, free movement of people and goods, as well as health issues.

To enable members to effectively perform their duties, capacity-building sessions were organized by IOM Mali on their roles and responsibilities, as well as information sharing within the general framework. Members have also been equipped with appropriate means of communication.

The workshop to revitalise cross-border cooperation between the Department of Tengrela and the Kolondiéba Circle provided an opportunity for the various stakeholders to share their concerns so that harmonised solutions could be found. With this in mind, the meeting was also an opportunity for the stakeholders to review the project to create a Local Grouping of Cross-border Cooperation (LGCC), the aim of which will be to harmonise texts and pool efforts with a view to participatory border management.

This story was written by Moussa Tall, IOM Mali.