Yamoussoukro (;
,
locally ) is the
capital city
A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state (polity), state, province, department (administrative division), department, or other administrative division, subnational division, usually as its ...
of
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...
and an autonomous
district
A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...
. As of the 2014 census, Yamoussoukro is the
fifth most populous city in the Ivory Coast, with a population of 212,670.
Located north-west of
Abidjan
Abidjan ( , ; N'Ko script, N'ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the largest city and the former capital of Ivory Coast. As of the Demographics of Ivory Coast, 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of the overall population ...
, the district of Yamoussoukro covers among rolling hills and plains.
Yamoussoukro became the legal capital of Ivory Coast in 1983, although the former capital Abidjan retains several political functions. Prior to 2011, what is now the district of Yamoussoukro was part of
Lacs Region. The district was created in 2011 and is split into the
departments of
Attiégouakro and
Yamoussoukro. In total, the district contains 169 settlements. Yamoussoukro is a
sub-prefecture in Yamoussoukro Department and is also a
commune: since 2012, the city of Yamoussoukro has been the sole commune in the autonomous district of Yamoussoukro.
History
Prehistory
Stone tools found in the country from hundreds of thousands of years ago show that the area around Yamoussoukro has been occupied since ancient times. Due to the
desertification
Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of Soil fertility, fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities.
The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This i ...
of the
Sahara
The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...
, many moved south to avoid the harsh conditions.
Colonial period
Queen Yamoussou, the niece of Kouassi N'Go, ran the city of ''N'Gokro'' in 1929 at the time of
French colonization. The village of N'Gokro was renamed Yamoussoukro, the suffix ''Kro'' meaning town in
Baoule.
Diplomatic and commercial relations were then established, but in 1909, on the orders of the Chief of Djamlabo, the Akoué revolted against the administration. Bonzi station, from Yamoussoukro on the
Bouaflé road, was set on fire, and the French administrator, Simon Maurice, was spared only by the intervention of Kouassi N'Go.
As the situation got worse, Maurice, judging that Bonzi had become safe, decided to transfer the French military station to Yamoussoukro, where the French Administration built a pyramid to the memory of Kouassi N'Go, Chief of the Akoué, who was assassinated in 1910 by Akoué rebels, accusing him of being too close to the French.
In 1919, the civil station of Yamoussoukro was removed.
Félix Houphouët-Boigny became the leader of the village in 1939. A long period passed wherein Yamoussoukro, still a small agricultural town, remained in the shadows. This continued until after the Second World War, which saw the creation of the
African Agricultural Union, as well as the first conferences of its chief. However, it was only with independence that Yamoussoukro finally started to rise.
In 1950, the village comprised 500 inhabitants.
Since independence
After 1964, the President
Félix Houphouët-Boigny made ambitious plans and started to build. One day in 1965, later called the Great Lesson of Yamoussoukro, he visited the plantations with the leaders of the county, inviting them to transpose to their own villages the efforts and agricultural achievements of the region. On 21 July 1977, Houphouët offered his plantations to the State.
In March 1983, President Houphouët-Boigny made Yamoussoukro the political and administrative capital of
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...
, as the city was his birthplace. This marked the fourth movement of the country's capital city in a century. Ivory Coast's previous capital cities were
Grand-Bassam (1893),
Bingerville (1900), and Abidjan (1933). Most economic activity still takes place in Abidjan, and it is officially designated as the "economic capital" of the country.
Yamoussoukro is the seat of
Yamoussoukro Department and the neighbouring
Bélier Region, but Yamoussoukro itself is not part of the region.
Governance
Beginning in 2001, the city was governed as part of the
Yamoussoukro Department and incorporated into
Lacs Region. In 2011, the department was abolished and the autonomous district of Yamoussoukro was created and separated from the rest of Lacs, which became a
separate district.
Unlike most
districts of the country, the autonomous district of Yamoussoukro is not subdivided into
regions
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...
. The district, however, is divided into departments, sub-prefectures and a commune. The district consists of the
departments of
Attiégouakro and
Yamoussoukro. The departments further divided into the
sub-prefectures of
Attiégouakro,
Kossou,
Lolobo, and Yamoussoukro. There is one
commune, which is also named Yamoussoukro, and it shares the same borders as the district. In 2011, the position of Mayor of Yamoussoukro was replaced with a district governor appointed by the head of state.
Architecture
Also noteworthy are the
Kossou Dam, the
PDCI-RDA House, the schools of the
Félix Houphouët-Boigny National Polytechnic Institute, the Town Hall, the Protestant Temple, the Mosque, and the
Palace of Hosts. The
Yamoussoukro International Airport had an average of six hundred passengers and 36 flights in 1995. It is one of two airports in Africa (with
Gbadolite
Gbadolite or Gbado-Lite () is the capital of Nord-Ubangi Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The town is located south of the Ubangi River at the border to the Central African Republic and northeast of the national capital Kinshasa ...
) that could accommodate the
Concorde
Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...
.
Places of worship
Among the
places of worship are predominantly
Christian
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
churches and temples:
Roman Catholic Diocese of Yamoussoukro (
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
), United Methodist Church Ivory Coast (
World Methodist Council
The World Methodist Council (WMC), founded in 1881, is a consultative body that represents churches within Methodism and facilitates cooperation among its member denominations. It comprises 80 denominations in 138 countries which together repres ...
),
Union of Missionary Baptist Churches in Ivory Coast (
Baptist World Alliance
The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) is an international communion of Baptists, with an estimated 51 million people from 266 member bodies in 134 countries and territories as of 2024. A voluntary association of Baptist churches, the BWA accounts f ...
),
Assemblies of God
The World Assemblies of God Fellowship (WAGF), commonly known as the Assemblies of God (AG), is a global cooperative body or communion of over 170 Pentecostal denominations that was established on August 15, 1989. The WAGF was created to provi ...
. There are also
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
mosques.

Yamoussoukro is the site of the largest Christian church in the world: The
Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, consecrated by
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005.
In his you ...
on 10 September 1990.
Transport
The city is served by
Yamoussoukro International Airport.
Economy
The main activities in the city are fishing, forestry, and perfume industries.
[Britannica]
Yamoussoukro
britannica.com, USA, accessed on 7 July 2019
Climate
Yamoussoukro features a
tropical wet and dry climate (Aw) under the
Köppen-Geiger climate classification system.
The city features a lengthy
wet season
The wet season (sometimes called the rainy season or monsoon season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Generally, the season lasts at least one month. The term ''green season'' is also sometimes used a ...
covering the months of March through October, and a shorter
dry season
The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The t ...
that covers the remaining four months. Like many other cities in
West Africa
West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...
, Yamoussoukro is affected by the
harmattan
The Harmattan is a season in West Africa that occurs between the end of November and the middle of March. It is characterized by the dry and dusty northeasterly trade wind, of the same name, which blows from the Sahara over West Africa into th ...
, which serves as a primary source of the city's
dry season
The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The t ...
. Despite the lengthy wet season, Yamoussoukro does not see the level of rainfall experienced in Abidjan. Yamoussoukro on average sees roughly of precipitation annually.
Education
The
Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny was founded in 1996.
Sport
The city hosted the
2019 World Draughts Championship in draughts and is home to the
Ivory Coast Open tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
tournament.
The city's two
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
teams
SOA and
ASC Ouragahio share the
Yamoussoukro Stadium.
FC Bibo play in the suburb of
Kossou.
SOA's basketball club plays in the top division.
The city was scheduled to host group stage games for the AFCON 2023, delayed due to weather conditions to January 2024.
References
External links
Yamossoukro photo gallery*
{{Authority control
Capitals in Africa
Districts of Ivory Coast
Sub-prefectures of Yamoussoukro
Communes of Yamoussoukro
Regional capitals of Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast geography articles needing translation from French Wikipedia
Planned capitals