The Guéré [sellers] aren’t even neighbors of mine. They’re from the same area, but we don’t share boundaries. Never before had they stepped foot on my land, made any claim to it. Since 1969, I’ve planted rubber trees, coffee, and cocoa. I had a hectare of rubber trees that I was planning to extend [into my virgin forest] … and five hectares of cocoa, but they’ve taken that all over. Some of it was already in production. How can you sell someone’s land that’s already producing? All of my land is taken, I don’t know how I will get money this year. I don’t even know where I can plant rice to sustain my family…. I brought a complaint against one seller to the village chiefs [of Douedy-Guézon and Bédi-Goazon] and against the other seller to the sub-prefect, though he sent me back to the village chiefs. They’ve tried twice to summon one of the sellers for a meeting, but he doesn’t show up. It’s been since January 2012, and I still can’t access my land.93 In some cases documented by Human Rights Watch, it was another family member who illegally sold the land. For example, a 58-year-old man in Tinhou said that his nephew, in his 30s, sold the man’s land while he was a refugee in Liberia: “The youth recognizes that he did it, that he had no right to the land. We’re trying to resolve this within the family for now, not involve the authorities. He sold two hectares to a Burkinabé family. I told them to leave, but they said they gave money for the land. They’re putting down cocoa.”94 Throughout western Côte d’Ivoire, customary leaders and victims of land dispossession said that many of the illegal land sellers were young men “flouting the family hierarchy or just looking to make quick money off of a neighbor’s land they know they have no right to.”95 One Guéré interviewed fled Koadé-Guézon in March 2011 and returned in March 2012 to discover that his 20-year-old cousin had sold 12 hectares of the man’s land. The illegal seller promptly left the area and was no longer reachable at his former phone number. “He sold my land and then left,” the victim told Human Rights Watch. “It was virgin forest 93 Human Rights Watch interview with 68-year-old alleged victim of land dispossession by illegal sale, Douedy-Guézon, June 7, 2013. 94 Human Rights Watch interview with alleged victim of land dispossession by illegal sale, Tinhou, February 11, 2013. 95 Human Rights Watch interview with village elder, Fengolo, February 10, 2013. 35 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | OCTOBER 2013