Wild demolitions in Abidjan: The incredible case of the 76-year-old man who left thousands of Ivorians homeless

A private individual accused of having demolished several hectares of a district of Abidjan on the basis of a forged court document was arrested Thursday in the Ivorian economic capital, AFP learned Friday from the national police.

The case has been controversial in Ivory Coast since June 3, when part of the Koumassi Campement district was destroyed by bulldozers.

A classic scene in Abidjan where demolition operations in the name of the fight against unsanitary conditions have been carried out for several years, except that this time the destruction is claimed by an individual, Jacques Alloui Brou, who a few days later asserted in a video that he was within his rights, with a court decision to back him up.

However, according to the Abidjan prosecutor, this decision "does not authorize any demolition of buildings." An investigation was opened and the suspect was being sought.

Jacques Alloui Brou, a 76-year-old "economic operator," was arrested Thursday in the Abidjan commune of Port-Bouët, police spokesman Commissioner Denis Kouadio Aka told AFP, without further details.

According to the prosecutor, the demolitions constitute "disturbances to public order, assault and willful destruction of property belonging to others" and can lead to sentences of up to 5 years in prison.

Several thousand people have thus lost their homes in the Koumassi Campement district and have no relocation solution.

Since the beginning of the controversy, many Ivorians have questioned the ability of a single individual to mobilize such resources, with the support of the public force, to raze a neighborhood without the approval of the authorities.

"Who authorized the police to accompany him in his wrongdoing?" asks Le Nouveau Réveil, an opposition daily newspaper that refers to a "state scandal".

On Thursday, the High Authority for Good Governance (HABG), a state body, called for checks aimed in particular "at clarifying the chain of decision-making that led to the physical intervention on the site".