How Didier Drogba, the former Chelsea star and Ivory Coast forward used the power of football to end his country's civil war.
Ivory Coast`s Didier Drogba is escorted by soldiers during a victory lap in Bouake
Football is more than just a sport and sometimes its players transform into true heroes. Didier Yves Drogba Tébily is an Ivorian retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He is the all-time top scorer and former captain of the Ivory Coast national team. He is best known for his career at Chelsea, for whom he has scored more goals than any other foreign player and is currently the club's fourth highest goal scorer of all time. Widely regarded as one of Chelsea's greatest players, Drogba was named in the Chelsea team of the 2010–2020 decade by Chelsea's fans. He was named African Footballer of the Year twice, winning the accolade in 2006 and 2009.
Winning the Premier League 4 times, the Champions League and countless domestic trophies, his biggest achievement would be bringing an end to the First Ivorian Civil War.
In a war raging for 4 long years, over 4000 people had died and millions were displaced. The country remained split in two, with a rebel-held north and a government-held south. Hostility increased and raids on foreign troops and civilians rose. As of 2006, the region was tense, and many said the UN and the French military failed to calm the civil war. The country was split into two between the rebel-held Muslim majority North and the government-backed Christian majority South. The only way to solve this was to have an election. The president said it is almost impossible to do it in 2005 as there were rebels with weapons in the north but the opposition that there is no other way than going for an election in 2005 because that is what being said in the Constitution.
The date was 8 October 2005. The mathematics of qualification for World Cup 2006 were simple. A win for Cameroon against Egypt would see them reach their sixth tournament. Anything less would allow Ivory Coast, playing in Sudan and just a point behind, to leapfrog them and qualify instead - for the first time.
When the match was over the players made history by securing Ivory Coast's place at the 2006 World Cup, their first ever appearance at the global tournament with a 3-1 victory away over.
"The whole country - every person, every house - was happy. That day we all forgot the country was still divided," says Hassane Omar, a 20-year-old student in Abidjan at the time
For all the breathless footballing drama that took place that night, the most seismic event did not occur on the football pitch, but in the cramped away dressing room at the Al-Merrikh Stadium. A post-game prayer led by Drogba had become something of a ritual, but this would be different. The national team captain, Cyril Domoraud, invited the media into the changing room and handed the microphone to Didier Drogba, star striker and national icon.
Didier Drogba's speech to stop Civil War
The player idolised like a king then dropped to his knees, followed one by one by his loyal teammates. The players raised their hands to their heads, their palms turned towards the camera, echoing Drogba’s plea:
“Pardonnez!” – “Forgive! Forgive one another!” Over the outbreak of desperate cries, from Kolo Touré, Emmanuel Eboué to Arouna Koné, from Muslim and Christian, to Baolé and Bété, Drogba begged his fellow Ivorians: “Forgive! Forgive! Forgive! The one country in Africa with so many riches must not descend into war. Please lay down your weapons. Hold elections. All will be better.”
Rising to their feet, smiles once again spreading across their faces, the group resumed their jubilatory song to the same tune, however this time with revised lyrics: “We want to have fun, so stop firing your guns.”
The Ivory Coast national football team helped secure a truce in 2006 when it qualified for the World Cup and convinced Gbagbo to restart peace talks. It also helped further reduce tensions between government and rebel forces in 2007 by playing a match in the rebel capital of Bouaké, an occasion that brought both armies together peacefully for the first time. In late 2006, the elections were again delayed, this time until October 2007.
On 4 March 2007, a peace agreement was signed between the government and the New Forces in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. New Forces leader Guillaume Soro was subsequently appointed prime minister and took office in early April. On 16 April, in the presence of Gbagbo and Soro, the UN buffer zone between the two sides began to be dismantled, and government and New Forces soldiers paraded together for the first time. Gbagbo declared that the war was over.
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