Displacement but Little Land Dispossession: Tonkpi Region Human Rights Watch visited eight villages in Tonkpi region, primarily between Danané and Zouan-Hounien along the Liberian border. Tonkpi borders the regions of Guémon and Cavally, where massive land dispossession occurred following the crisis. ZouanHounien, for example, is about 100 miles from Bloléquin, the town around which there exists some of the most longstanding and acute land conflict. None of those interviewed in the visited villages in Tonkpi reported land conflicts related to the post-election crisis. This region marked the start of the Republican Forces’ offensive toward Abidjan. While the fighting and human rights abuses were much less severe than around Duékoué and between Toulepleu and Guiglo, tens of thousands of people were displaced from Tonkpi between December 2010 and mid-2011. Yet, as one village chief said, “The crisis didn’t have any consequences on land here.”176 Residents and community leaders cited a number of reasons for the lack of land conflicts linked to the crisis. The dominant ethnic group in Tonkpi is the Yacouba, whose primary political party, the UPDCI, formed part of the Ouattara’s coalition. The Forces Nouvelles fighters who comprised the majority of the Republican Forces during the crisis had also controlled most of the region since 2002. The Republican Forces committed fewer targeted abuses against the Yacouba population as compared to the Guérés, although they still pillaged many Yacouba villages. Residents of several villages said they were therefore not displaced for long, or moved back and forth from Liberia with ease.177 In contrast, after the Republican Forces swept through, Guéré villages were often completely emptied of Guérés. Residents of visited Tonkpi villages also said that their communities have rarely sold or ceded land historically, unlike in other parts of western Côte d’Ivoire.178 Perhaps related, in villages visited by Human Rights Watch, the immigrant population in the regions of Guémon and Cavally appears to greatly outnumber the immigrant population in Tonkpi 176 Human Rights Watch interview with village chief, village near Zouan-Hounien, June 9, 2013. 177 Human Rights Watch interviews with residents of villages in Tonkpi, June 9-11, 2013. 178 Human Rights Watch interviews with residents of villages in Tonkpi, June 9-11, 2013. “THAT LAND IS MY FAMILY’S WEALTH” 60