All pupil unions in Ivory Coast are being close indisposed, the federal government has introduced, then the killing of 2 scholars which is being blamed at the robust Scholar and College Federation (Fesci).

A number of Fesci individuals had been arrested in reference to the murders of Khalifa Diomandé and Zigui Mars Aubin Déagoué, which took playground in August and September.

An underground tunnel worn for torturing family and a brothel had been discovered right through investigations at Félix-Houphouët-Boigny College in the primary town of Abidjan, the government say.

Scholars inform the BBC it was once an discoverable hidden that Fesci ran each illicit websites however that everyone was once too afraid to talk out.

“You wouldn’t have believed you were in an university in an organised country,” mentioned a former pupil who has requested to stay nameless.

“I was threatened by Fesci many times, they tried to rape me,” she tells the BBC. “My boyfriend tried to stand up for me, and he was beaten up,” she alleges. On alternative events she says she needed to pay Fesci individuals to reduce her abandoned.

She says she continues to be traumatised, and has no longer prepared foundation at the campus since dropping by the wayside then her ordeal 8 years in the past.

“I don’t know how it lasted so long but now I feel relieved for the victims,” she provides.

Extortion was once regular, say scholars.

“I was supposed to pay $100 (£77) per month for my room,” explains Jose Aristide, “but they were forcing me to pay $250 per month.

“There was once refuse alternative possibility. Everybody feared them.”

On Thursday, Ivory Coast’s Security Council said it had carried out a series of raids on campuses in Abidjan and the central city of Bouaké in which more than 100 machetes and grenades were seized.

They also found and expelled 5,000 undeclared residents at university campuses across Abidjan, Bouaké and Daloa.

When the student union ban was announced that same day, people celebrated.

One lecturer tells the BBC he welcomes the ban, saying he hopes it will bring some peace to the campuses.

Originally set up in the 1990s as a student body, Fesci soon became an anti-government protest group, and has long been suspected of involvement in organised crime.

It has also served as a springboard into politics for some.

Former Fesci leaders include Guillaume Soro – a rebel leader turned prime minister, and Charles Blé Goudé – a former youth minister who was accused then acquitted of massive human rights violations during post-election violence that happened a decade ago.

Spare reporting by way of Natasha Booty