Fleeing a War Zone
Issiaga Diallo
War is an abomination. No one should endure what people, especially innocent people, endure during a civil conflict. As far as I am concerned, I experienced such a situation in 2010 in Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa. In this essay, I will focus on the difficulties I faced at that time, to leave the country.
I am from Guinea Conakry, but I have lived in Cote d’Ivoire from 1990 to 2021. In 2010, after a presidential election, a civil conflict took place in the country. Like almost always in Africa, the outgoing candidate refused to admit defeat. The violence started after the proclamation of the result of the election. The epicenter of the violences was in the capital, Abidjan, where I lived. I had a small store; it was a grocery specialized in fresh products such as salad, cabbage, onion etc. I also had toys for kids, imported from China and Dubai. A gang of young men attacked my store and took whatever they could and destroyed the store. They would have even killed me if a man in the neighborhood hadn’t helped me. So I decided to leave the country.
The first issue was to attend the southern area of Abidjan, where international organizations helped evacuate civilians. Unfortunately, only expatriates from Western Countries were accepted. So I used my B plan. That meant to travel by road. My country, Guinea, is to the West of Cote d’Ivoire. But at that time, this region was controlled by rebels. Therefore, I decided to go through the Nord of Cote d’Ivoire. In this case, I had to cross Mali before arriving in Guinea. I didn’t care about distance because I wanted to save my life. Another problem was the transportation. It was difficult to find a car and it was hundred per cent more expensive than in a normal time. Finally it took me five days to get to the Mali border. My money was gone, for that reason, I decided to stay in a refugee camp. After ten days in this camp, my brother sent me money by MoneyGram. It took me five more days to arrive to my final destination, the Fouta Djallon, a highland region in the center of Guinea
What I endured during this trip is something that I can never forget. The abuses, the murders of innocent people I saw, will always remain in my memory. Since that time I decided that if an election is taking place in a country, even my own country, I’ll never stay in the capital. That way, if I have to flee, it might be easier.
