The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed the repatriation of 327 Ghanaian nationals from Port Bouët Municipality in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, after a mass demolition exercise by Ivorian authorities left them without housing or livelihoods.
In a Facebook statement issued Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said 228 of the affected nationals had already arrived in Ghana on Thursday, 11 June, with the remaining 99 scheduled to return the same day the statement was issued. The Ghanaian government provided buses and trucks to transport the returnees and their belongings free of charge.
According to the ministry, all 327 individuals had been residing in areas of Port Bouët targeted by the demolition exercise and lost both their accommodation and their means of livelihood as a result, leaving them stranded with no capacity to secure alternative housing in Côte d’Ivoire.
Compensation track remains open
The statement notes that Ivorian authorities have indicated willingness to compensate those affected by the demolitions. Ghana’s diplomatic mission in Abidjan has been tasked with continued coordination to ensure affected nationals actually receive any compensation promised — language that signals the matter is unresolved rather than concluded.
The ministry pledged to provide further updates “as appropriate,” a standard formulation that leaves the timeline for compensation, and the mechanism for disbursement, unspecified.
The ministry also thanked Ivorian authorities and unnamed “stakeholders” for cooperating with the repatriation.
This is the second major repatriation operation Ablakwa’s ministry has managed this month. Ghana has also been repatriating citizens from South Africa following xenophobic attacks, with the minister describing a separate evacuation of roughly 1,000 Ghanaians as fulfilment of the government’s pledge to protect citizens caught in violence abroad .
The Côte d’Ivoire operation differs in character — it stems from an administrative demolition exercise rather than targeted violence — but reflects a broader pattern of the ministry positioning diaspora protection as a policy priority.
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