The National Borders Commission of Côte d’Ivoire on Friday, November 6, in Yamoussoukro, called on the prefects gathered from 17 border regions to organize local monitoring and rapid reporting of incidents in order to strengthen risk prevention at the borders.
This direction was decided at the end of a seminar held on November 5 and 6 with the International Centre for Migration Policy Development. The meeting was intended to prepare the territorial implementation of the National Policy for Integrated Border Management by the prefectural authorities.
The first directive concerns the dissemination of this policy to decentralized services, security forces, local authorities, traditional authorities, and border communities. The CNFCI thus aims to provide local actors with a common framework to identify risks and coordinate their responses.
Prefects are also called upon to align the initiatives led by ministries and their partners. This coordination should limit scattered interventions and enable the administrations present in border areas to share useful information.
The collection of alerts will notably rely on monitoring and awareness committees created or updated under the initiative of the sub-prefects. These local structures will need to report tensions and incidents so that the CNFCI can analyze them and direct the appropriate services.
The fourth guideline concerns cooperation with neighboring countries. Local authorities must maintain regular dialogue with their counterparts and integrate these exchanges into recognized mechanisms of cross-border cooperation.
The Director General of the Territorial Administration, Ibrahima Bayo, has asked the prefects to translate these guidelines into actions adapted to their jurisdictions. He reminded that the management of border areas concerns security, state authority, the protection of populations, and good neighborly relations.
Adopted by the government on June 12, 2024, the policy is coordinated by the CNFCI. The workshop was co-financed with the ICMPD as part of the FMM 2 program, supported by the European Union and Denmark, and a roadmap must now organize its deployment in the prefectures.
