5.3. Border populations Côte d’Ivoire shares land borders with the following five countries: Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ghana. Where cross-border ethnic communities are undocumented and mobile and/or are stigmatized or marginalized in society, members of these groups can run the risk of statelessness.181 The Ivorian Ministry of Justice has identified one such sub-ethnic group whose members might be stateless or at risk of statelessness, namely, the Lobi. Lobi communities are found across southeastern Burkina Faso, northeastern Côte d’Ivoire, and northwestern Ghana. In colonial times, the Lobi resisted French efforts to participate in the colonial population census process.182 In addition to those in the West of the country, the towns and villages in northeastern Côte d’Ivoire continue to have some of the lowest rates of birth registration in the country.183 In the absence of more detailed information about the potential cross-border mobility and local administrative perceptions of the Lobi in the Zanzan region, it is difficult to draw any insights or conclusions about the potential consequences for statelessness or nationality that might present in this region. Further field research and study on this ethnic group and region would certainly be merited as part of a broader exploration of nationality and statelessness issues that might be present in Côte d’Ivoire’s North. Given time and resource limitations inherent in this study, it was not possible to visit and evaluate potential regional specificities in relation to the prevalence of statelessness in border regions. For a more comprehensive understanding of the potential local dynamics related to statelessness, further research should be done in the following regions: southwestern Côte d’Ivoire towards the border with Liberia; southeastern Côte d’Ivoire towards Ghana; northeastern Côte d’Ivoire towards the borders with Burkina Faso and Ghana, and the northwestern region towards the borders with Mali and Guinea. 5.4. Returnees, Ivorian refugee children born abroad, and internally displaced persons Field research in western Côte d’Ivoire conducted for this report revealed several insights into the potential prevalence of statelessness or the risk of statelessness among the populations of former Ivorian refugees who have returned to Côte d’Ivoire, including by UNHCR-assisted repatriation from Liberia; returnee children born to Ivorian refugees abroad, and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Once post-election violence subsided in 2012, UNHCR began assisting with the repatriation of Ivorian refugees.184 The majority of Ivorian refugees originated from western Côte d’Ivoire, one of the regions the most affected by the civil war and absence of civil administration from 2002 onwards. As such, returnees have been arriving back, many having lost their identification documents due to their displacement, to towns and communities where the civil status registers had been destroyed and only partly reconstituted. Having prima facie been identified and registered as 181 Manby, supra note 13. Bazié Boubie, « Compter Pour Planifier » dans la Politique Administrative Coloniale en Pays Lobi du Burkina Faso. 183 Direction des Etudes, de la Programmation et du Suivi-Evaluation, Ministère d’Etat, Ministère de l’Intérieure et de la Sécurité, Annuaire des Statistiques d’Etat Civil 2015, September 2016, Section 4.5. Furthermore, according to a UNDP study of the geographic distribution of the rates of rejection of national ID cards in the 2007-2010 election process, the Department of Bouna in Zanzan was only one of two departments to have a rejection rate of over 40%. Bouna’s rate of ID card rejection was 40.21% while the Department of Zouan-Hounien in the 18 Montagnes Region of western Côte d’Ivoire had 56.77%. PNUD/PACE Excel Spreadsheet, Populations Croisées Négativement, par CEL, 29 November 2009 (on file with author). 184 The number of Ivorian refugees abroad swelled to 154,824 in end 2011 and stood at 71,959 in end 2014. UNHCR, Global Trends 2011, Table 2 and UNHCR, Global Trends 2014, Table 2. 182 50