Congrès Panafricain des Jeunes et des Patriotes
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The Congrès Panafricain des Jeunes et des Patriotes (''COJEP''), commonly known as Young Patriots, of
Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
is the name given to a
youth movement The following is a list of youth organizations. A youth organization is a type of organization with a focus upon providing activities and socialization for minors. In this list, most organizations are international unless noted otherwise. 0 ...
supportive of then
President of Ivory Coast This article lists the heads of state of Ivory Coast, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, since the country gained independence from France in 1960. Alassane Ouattara has been serving as President of Ivory Coast since 4 December 2010. L ...
,
Laurent Gbagbo Koudou Laurent Gbagbo
, FPI website .
( Ivorian Popular Front The Ivorian Popular Front (french: Front populaire ivoirien; abbr. FPI) is a centre-left, democratic socialist and social democratic political party in Ivory Coast. FPI was founded in exile in 1982 by history professor Laurent Gbagbo, Aboudram ...
(FPI) party. Its founder is Charles Blé Goudé. Set up in June 2001, the group attracted controversy and international condemnation due to its alleged involvement in
extra-judicial killing An extrajudicial killing (also known as extrajudicial execution or extralegal killing) is the deliberate killing of a person without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, whether ...
s and for organising demonstrations which often turned violent. The organisation is nationalist and opposed to the
Islamification Islamization, Islamicization, or Islamification ( ar, أسلمة, translit=aslamāh), refers to the process through which a society shifts towards the religion of Islam and becomes largely Muslim. Societal Islamization has historically occur ...
of the country, with Gbagbo's supporters tend to be Christians from the south, as opposed to the rebel forces from the largely
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
north, which fought the
First Ivorian Civil War The First Ivorian Civil War was a civil conflict in the Ivory Coast (also known as Côte d'Ivoire) that began with a military rebellion on 19 September 2002 and ended with a peace agreement on 4 March 2007. The conflict pitted the government of ...
against the Gbagbo government from 2002 to 2006. The organisation itself claims that it rejects violence, and that it has been misrepresented in the Western media, especially that of France.


History

Blé Goudé founded COJEP in June 2001, at the end of his term as the head of another youth movement in Ivory Coast, after it had suffered an ideological split and become deeply politicised, with one section allying itself to a military
junta Junta may refer to: Government and military * Junta (governing body) (from Spanish), the name of various historical and current governments and governing institutions, including civil ones ** Military junta, one form of junta, government led by ...
within the country. The new movement he set up was fiercely supportive of Laurent Gbagbo, who had been elected in 2000. On September 26, 2002, within a week of the failed coup d'état by the Ivorian army, Blé Goudé, who was in
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
finishing a degree, flew back to
Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N'Ko script, N’ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the economic capital of the Ivory Coast. As of the Demographics of Ivory Coast, 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of overall population of the country, ...
to mobilise the COJEP along with several other youth movements, merging them into a more militant version of the group called '' Alliance des jeunes patriotes pour le sursaut national'' ("Youth Alliance for National Survival"). This new organisation incorporated: *COJEP – Blé Goudé's original organisation *la Fédération des étudiants et scolaires de Côte d'Ivoire (FESCI) – another student organisation loyal to Gbagbo *The campaign to repatriate
Alassane Ouattara Alassane Dramane Ouattara (; ; born 1 January 1942) is an Ivorian politician who has been President of Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) since 2010. An economist by profession, Ouattara worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF)Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
politician and opponent of Gbagbo who originally came from
Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...
*Thierry Legré's "Movement for the Republican Conscience" In January 2003, they prevented
Dominique de Villepin Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin (; born 14 November 1953) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007 under President Jacques Chirac. In his career working at the Minist ...
, France's
Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...
, from leaving the presidential palace for three-quarters of an hour. In November 2004, the Young Patriots attacked French homes and businesses, forcing thousands of white people to flee, as they were thought to be French. This was fueled by anger over France's perceived role in the then two-year-old ongoing civil war. In addition, France was said to be interfering in the
economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
and maintaining the country as a
client state A client state, in international relations, is a state that is economically, politically, and/or militarily subordinate to another more powerful state (called the "controlling state"). A client state may variously be described as satellite state, ...
. Calls for violence against whites and non-Ivorians were broadcast on national radio and TV after the Young Patriots seized control of its offices. The attacks drew international condemnation, and
Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder ...
described the group as a
militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
. In October 2005, presidential elections which were due to be held in Ivory Coast were cancelled, after Gbagbo used a law which allowed him to stay in power. The UN, already accused of having taken a stance sympathetic to the French as well as the northern rebels, criticised this, and this led to a series of protests in January of 2006.


January 2006 events

January 16, 2006, the Young Patriots were involved in violent demonstrations against the UN, and in one incident, at least four were killed after an exchange of fire at a UN peacekeeper's camp. UN peacekeepers are allowed to shoot if they come under violent attack. The crisis began after UN mediators called for the
National Assembly (Ivory Coast) The National Assembly is lower house of the Parliament of Ivory Coast since November 2016. From 1960 to 2016, the National Assembly was Ivory Coast's unicameral legislative body. Evolved from semi-representative bodies of the French Colonial p ...
to be dissolved and for Gbagbo's mandate to end. During the days that followed, two thousand youths clashed with UN peacekeepers. The Young Patriots seized control of the offices of Ivory Coast's state-owned television channel, RTI, and broadcast repeated messages to attack the UN base in
Daloa Daloa is a city in western Ivory Coast. It is the seat of both the Sassandra-Marahoué District and the Haut-Sassandra Region. It is also the seat of and a sub-prefectures of Ivory Coast, sub-prefecture of Daloa Department. Daloa is also a Commune ...
, as well as French targets. They also reportedly ransacked a community radio station, Radio Tchrato-Daloa which had refused to let them in, as well as besieging a UN base and the French embassy for two days, until on January 20, Blé Goudé called for them to go home and "clean up the streets".


Ideology

The Young Patriots described themselves as fighting against "
neo-colonialism Neocolonialism is the continuation or reimposition of imperialist rule by a state (usually, a former colonial power) over another nominally independent state (usually, a former colony). Neocolonialism takes the form of economic imperialism, gl ...
and
imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
". They claimed that France, which formerly colonised the country, had a stranglehold on the Ivorian economy, with most ports and major companies being French-owned. Up until the start of the civil war, millions of refugees had entered Ivory Coast from neighbouring countries such as
Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
,
Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...
,
Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
and
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
to escape hunger and conflict. This produced resentment in the native population, as immigrants provided cheap labour and were perceived to be taking their jobs, especially in poorer areas of Abidjan, where support for the Young Patriots is strongest. The Young Patriots are hostile to the rebel forces in the north of the country, which is largely dominated by Muslims, often poor
migrant worker A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work. Migrant worker ...
s from neighbouring nations. Only people between the ages of 20 and 32, of Ivorian descent or whose parents are both Ivorian, are allowed to become members of the organisation. This policy excludes many people from the north of the country, who migrated there more than 40 years earlier, prior to the country's 1960 independence from France. The organisation has been blamed for violent attacks on "foreigners" who do not match this definition. The organisation is heavily supportive of Gbagbo, and Blé Goudé, its leader, has been described as "the fourth most powerful man in the country". Despite the violent actions by some demonstrators, he compares himself to
Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
and
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
, and claims to use
pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
resistance.


References


Official site (in French)UN clashesHate mediaFrance's Ivorian quagmireRoadblocks and Riots – NewsweekReporters Sans Frontieres press releaseA Young Patriot's conviction and anger (BBC)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Congres Panafricain Des Jeunes Et Des Patriotes Politics of Ivory Coast Political organizations based in Ivory Coast Patriotic societies 2001 establishments in Ivory Coast Paramilitary organizations based in Ivory Coast