In a significant change of tone towards its Burkina Faso neighbour, Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo hailed relations between Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast as the “backbone of West Africa."

“For me and also for many Ivoirians and Burkina Faso nationals, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso are one and the same fatherland in the heart of West Africa because of our long political, economical, social, cultural and human history,” he said on the last day of a state visit there.

The détente comes after a period of tense relations between two former French colonies.

President Gbagbo long accused his Burkinabe counterpart Blaise Compaore of supporting the rebel movement that almost threw him out of power in 2002. But it was the same Compaore who effectively helped broker the peace deal between the two Ivorian feuding factions in March 2007.

“They have come out of their war of attrition,” says Philippe Hugon, an Africa specialist at Paris X-Nanterre University.

The triumph of ‘real politik’

The 2002 coup attempt led by Guillaume Soro’s Northern rebels failed but left Ivory Coast cut in two warring parts. The 2007 Ouagadougou Accord partly succeeded in restoring the country’s unity, paving the way to the organisation of a new presidential election.

A new government was installed earlier this year in which Gbagbo agreed to share power with former rebel chief Guillaume Soro as his prime minister.

The election, initially announced for October 2005 when Gbagbo's term was to end, has been pushed back many times. It is now scheduled for November.

The timing of the visit is a positive sign as far as the implementation of the Ouagadougou Accord is concerned, analysts say.

On the one hand, Soro couldn’t have taken control of the whole of the Ivory Coast and Compaore knew that backing him indefinitely would do little for his reputation, Hugon explains.

On the other hand, he says, “Gbagbo shows he is a good tactician by accepting the compromise. But he knows that his chances of being reelected in November are very strong.”

The sticking point: the ‘foreigners’

At the heart of the dispute between the two former French colonies – and of the Ivorian civil war - is the question of the Burkinabe nationals living in the Ivory Coast.  But on this particular sticking point, little seems to have come out of the two leaders’ discussions.

Three million Burkinabe reportedly live the Ivory Coast. Originally brought in by the French rulers to work in the coffee and cocoa fields, they still account for a major part of the Ivorian economy.

The so-called ‘foreigners’ – who had been living in peace under President Felix Houphouet-Boigny’s rule – were growingly marginalized under his successors. The looming xenophobia culminated when opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara was excluded from the 2000 presidential election on the grounds that he wasn’t Ivorian enough.

The decision precipitated a civil war. Compaore’s intervention, positioning himself as the defender of his fellow Burkinabe, left Ouagadougou and Abidjan on the edge of an open conflict.

Gbagbo’s decision last November to get rid of residence permits for all nationals from other West African nations including Burkina Faso, was a positive gesture, says Alpha Barry, a Ouagadougou-based correspondent for RFI.  

“But beyond the decree, we need real political will to put an end to the daily harassment that still going on the ground,” he says.

The Ivorian economy badly suffered from the civil war while Burkina Faso, once highly dependent on the Ivory Coast, has turned to its other neighbours Togo, Ghana and Benin.

Now may be the time when Gbagbo realizes that he needs his Burkinabe neighbour as much as it once needed him. “The Ivory Coast wants to be the driving force in Wthe region,” says Barry. “But it needs the Burkinabe. They’re the ones who made its economy.”