In 2007, after four years of civil war and political deadlock in Côte d’Ivoire, a peace agreement was signed between the government and rebel forces. The time was right for MSF to hand over its activities to the Ivorian Ministry of Health (MoH). From 2003 to 2008, MSF brought life-saving healthcare, with projects both north and south of the zone de confiance, a buffer zone that separated the southern government-controlled territory from the rebel-held north.

In the 1990s, Côte d’Ivoire was stable and prosperous. However, in 2002 a failed coup d’état, and the ensuing conflict between the government and rebel forces, divided the country in two. The civilian population was caught in the crossfire: tens of thousands of people lost their homes and families.

In 2003, MSF opened a hospital in the city of Danané, located north of the zone de confiance, as its hospital had been plundered and the personnel had fled. MSF teams organized the return of the hospital staff, opened basic health centres and ran mobile clinics in the small towns of Bin Houyé and Zouan Hounien, and the surrounding regions, on both sides of the zone de confiance. By the end of that first year, MSF medical teams were providing 15,000 consultations a month.

In 2004, MSF treated 180,000 patients in our mobile clinics and admitted 2,600 patients to the hospital. That year, our team also performed a mass measles vaccination for 36,000 children after a large outbreak. In April 2004, MSF issued an alarming report on the rise of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV/AIDS; many cases of this disease resulted from the use of sexual violence as a weapon in the conflict. In both Danané and Bin Houyé, MSF established STI clinics, and treated patients with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis at Danané hospital.

Following the 2007 peace agreement, Côte d’Ivoire reached a positive turning point. A national unity government was formed and the zone de confiance was dismantled in September 2007. With the situation returning to normal, civil servants in the administrative and health sectors redeployed to the north and west, enabling MSF to hand over its projects to the MoH in the first three months of 2008.

MSF continued to support the therapeutic feeding centre in Danané hospital until the end of the malnutrition risk season in September 2008. The HIV/AIDS program was also handed over to the MoH and supported by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation.