The Ivory Coast government has banned the activities of all student unions in the country after the killing of two students identified as Khalifa Diomandé and Zigui Mars Aubin Déagoué.

The National Security Council (CNS) announced the ban on Thursday after a meeting chaired by President Alassane Ouattara, in response to a proposal made by the country’s minister in charge of higher education.

The statement noted that “the dissolution of all student union bodies which were established in the 1990s” was aimed at curbing violence in the country’s university campuses and schools.

Some members of the Student and School Federation of Côte d’Ivoire (FESCI), suspected to be behind the killings that occurred in August and September 2024, have been arrested.

The government, aside from opening a judicial investigation, has dislodged everyone living irregularly on university campuses, which has led to the arrest of 17 students, including the general secretary of FESCI.

In the same vein, the government has also dislodged about 5,000 people living irregularly in the university towns of Abidjan, Bouaké, and Daloa, while seizing over 100 machetes and grenades, as well as destroying illegal businesses during the raids in these areas.

The CNS, at the meeting, expressed satisfaction with the results of the enforcement operations, which, according to it, have restored “the necessary calm for the smooth running of academic activities.”

The government, therefore, vowed to “maintain and vigorously pursue” all sanitation measures for university campuses “in order to eliminate all illegal practices.”

Investigators sent to the Félix-Houphouët-Boigny University in Abidjan discovered a brothel and a tunnel where victims were tortured. Students told the BBC that both places, run by FESCI, are known to them, but they can’t speak about it due to fear.

A former student at the university, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the BBC, “You wouldn’t have believed you were in a university in an organised country,” adding, “I was threatened by FESCI many times; they tried to rape me.”

Stating that she is still traumatised and has not been to the campus since she dropped out after her ordeal eight years ago, she recounted, “My boyfriend tried to stand up for me, and he was beaten up.”

She also stated that she had, on a few occasions, paid FESCI members to leave her alone, adding, “I don’t know how it lasted so long, but now I feel relieved for the victims.”

FESCI, which has long been an anti-government protest group, has been alleged to be involved in organised crime, while some of its members have delved into politics.