“The one country in Africa with so many riches must not descend into war. Please lay down your weapons and hold elections. We want to have fun, so stop firing your guns.”

This is not a speech from a political rally. Those words were uttered on television from a cramped dressing room inside a football stadium in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum after one of the biggest sporting achievements in the Ivory Coast’s history.

In October 2005, the national team’s 3-1 victory over Sudan secured World Cup qualification for the first time. Instead of celebrating, Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, who went on to represent Montreal Impact and Phoenix Rising, stood in front of a camera with a microphone in his right hand.

Surrounded by his team-mates – current Manchester City assistant coach Kolo Toure put his left arm around the striker’s shoulders – Drogba spoke about the civil war back home between President Laurent Gbagbo’s forces and rebel soldiers. In October 2021, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) claimed 750,000 people were forcibly displaced by the conflict between 2002 and 2007. Exact figures for the loss of life are difficult to find, but estimates range between 1,000 and 3,000 deaths.

“Men and women of Ivory Coast. From the north, south, centre and west, we proved today that all Ivorians can coexist and play together with a shared aim – to qualify for the World Cup,” Drogba said. “We promised you that the celebrations would unite the people – today we beg you on our knees. Forgive. Forgive. Forgive.”

Drogba, speaking in French, dropped to the floor with his team-mates and then started singing, “Stop firing your guns.” The video clip is only a minute long but its impact is still felt today.

“Drogba is a great striker, who had an extraordinary career, and he is a good person,” Aruna Dindane, who scored twice for Ivory Coast against Sudan that day, tells The Athletic. “Something came out spontaneously and contributed to cohesion, to the good of great men.”

The origins of the first Ivorian civil war can be traced back to the death of Felix Houphouet-Boigny in 1993. Houphoeut-Boigny was the country’s first president after gaining independence from France in 1960 and he remained in power until his death. Houphouet-Boigny helped Ivory Coast’s economy grow significantly by scaling up the production of cocoa, coffee, coconuts and pineapples.

Henri Konan Bedie, Houphouet-Boigny’s successor, served as president for six years until he was removed by a military coup and replaced by Robert Guei. Bedie stoked tensions during his reign by introducing a law that prohibited people from holding important government positions if they were born outside Ivory Coast. A candidate’s parents needed to be born in the country and to have lived there for at least five years before an election. This rule prevented Alassane Ouattara, who served as the prime minister under Houphouet-Boigny, from running for office in the 1995 presidential election because his father grew up in Burkina Faso.

Bedie’s actions angered large sections of the public in the northern parts of Ivory Coast who had migrated from Mali and Burkina Faso. Ouattara was barred from the presidential elections in 2000, which Guei lost to Gbagbo. Guei sacked the electoral commission and tried to announce himself as the winner, which triggered violent protests that led to the deaths of more than 350 people.

Gbagbo introduced new laws that further restricted the rights of immigrants and impacted others living in the north. In September 2002, troops revolted when the government tried to demobilise them. They attacked three cities, including Abidjan, gaining control of Korhogo and Bouake. They were later identified as part of the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI), which was led by Guillaume Soro.

“The country was divided,” Lyn Kouadio, who is from Ivory Coast and a researcher at University College Oxford specialising in Western African studies, says. “The southern part, from Bouake, was under government control. There was a buffer zone where French soldiers were and then the north was held by rebel groups. Yamoussoukro is the political capital but everything happens in Abidjan. It was about conquering ground.

“Every type of (violence) you can imagine was happening in Bouake. It was horrible. People in the regions north of Bouake had to flee. They walked down from Bouake to Abidjan (around 235 miles, 380 km). They left for Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin and Ghana. It was a mass exodus.

“Bouake was the second-largest city in terms of population and economic activity. It had become an industrial base, especially around textiles, because it is close to the political capital and easy to get to. This is important because of the internal displacement that followed. (The conflict) accelerated the growth of certain kinds of slums in Abidjan because people had to move their families (from Bouake) and find ways to carry on living. Even now, lots of people live in Abidjan but work in Bouake. There is a sense they are scarred by the violence. Western media reported that 3,000 people died but the number is much higher than that.”

In December 2002, the MPCI joined forces with two other rebel factions to form the New Forces of Ivory Coast (FNCI). The following month, figures from the government, FNCI, opposition political parties and the United Nations met in Paris to sign a peace agreement called the Linas-Marcoussis Accord. Gbagbo would lead a power-sharing government with representation from across the political spectrum. The war was officially declared over in July 2003 but violent outbursts continued.

Against this backdrop, a talented generation of footballers emerged, including brothers Kolo and Yaya Toure, Didier Zokora, Emmanuel Eboue and, of course, Drogba. He joined Chelsea from Marseille in 2004 for £24million (then $43.9m) and won multiple trophies with them, including four Premier League titles. He scored the winning penalty in the 2012 Champions League final against Bayern Munich. He captained his country and is their all-time top goalscorer.

Ivory Coast were eliminated at the group stages of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in 2000 and 2002 while they failed to qualify in 2004. However, heading into the last round of qualifying games for the 2006 World Cup, they were a point behind group leaders Cameroon. Between 1994 and 2022, only five African teams could qualify for each edition. If the Democratic Republic of Congo win their play-off final in March, there will be 10 African sides at this summer’s expanded 48-team tournament.

Ivory Coast needed to beat Sudan and hope Cameroon dropped points against Egypt. Mohamed El Shawky’s 79th-minute strike earned Egypt a draw. Kanga Akale put Ivory Coast ahead and Dindane scored twice after half-time to seal a 3-1 victory over Sudan.

“We did everything possible to win the match but it was difficult because we did not control our destiny,” says Dindane, who played for Portsmouth and now works with Ivory Coast’s Football Federation (FIFCI). “There was a glimmer of hope that if Cameroon drew at home and we won in Sudan then we would qualify for the first time. We clung to that and the unthinkable happened.

“I was lucky enough to score twice and it gave me immense pleasure. I did my part that day and so did my team-mates.”

Drogba finished the qualifying campaign with nine goals, behind only Togo’s Emmanuel Adebayor (10), but he is remembered for what happened in the dressing room afterwards.

“It was the first time we had a conflict of this magnitude,” Dindane adds. “Everyone, directly or indirectly, was impacted. May God protect all countries in the world, especially in Africa, from experiencing this situation because they were difficult things to deal with.

“We prayed together and thanked God for allowing us to win. We danced. We celebrated but in a sombre way. I don’t know if (Drogba) planned the speech but it was natural. I believed in (his message).”

Souleymane Coulibaly idolised Drogba during his childhood. Coulibaly grew up in Abidjan but moved to Italy in 2009 to live with his father due to the unrest caused by the civil war. Coulibaly was 11 when Ivory Coast qualified for the 2006 World Cup and he remembers watching the game with his grandmother.

“What Drogba did was amazing,” Coulibaly, who earned a move to Tottenham Hotspur after scoring nine goals in four games for Ivory Coast at the Under-17 World Cup in 2011. “He is an example of a good human being because lots of people (players) think only about football. Outside of football, you need to be kind, respectful and responsible. He gave everything for the country. It was unbelievable and I cannot forget that.

“Lots of footballers love him – even the generation after me are inspired by Didier. Any African, they are all inspired by him.”

Christian Manfredini was born in Ivory Coast but moved to Italy, where he was adopted at the age of five. The midfielder was called up for the first time a few months after the infamous game against Sudan but earned his only cap in a friendly against Israel in November 2008.

“Drogba was special,” Manfredini, who now runs a coaching school and commentates on Italian lower-league games for RAI, says. “He made a positive impression on me. He knew I came from Italy. He used to visit Milan and so spoke a bit of Italian. Just two or three words which put me at ease. I only knew him from watching TV, so to see him up close was a joy.

“When there is a war going on, you always talk about it with your friends. It touched me personally because I was born there. I spoke about it with team-mates, hoping it would be over quickly. It was good to see someone that important and influential try to improve things for people in Ivory Coast.”

Drogba’s speech was powerful but it did not stop the war. A few months after qualifying for the World Cup, four people died in the city of Guiglo after protesters attacked a United Nations base. In March 2007, a peace agreement was signed in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, and Gbagbo declared the war officially over, not for the first time, the following month. That June, Ivory Coast beat Madagascar 5-0 in an AFCON qualifier held in Bouake. A month later, Gbagbo returned to the city after a five-year absence and set fire to a cache of weapons with new prime minister, and former rebel leader, Soro.

Ivory Coast held presidential elections for the first time in a decade in 2010. Ouattara won, after finally being allowed to compete, but the results were disputed and violence broke out again. Around half a million people fled, mainly to Liberia, and 3,000 died.

According to Human Rights Watch, armed forces on both sides executed civilians, while more than 150 women were raped.

Gbagbo was captured in April 2011 and went on trial at the International Criminal Court for war crimes. He was acquitted in 2019 and that decision was upheld two years later.

Ouattara, who turned 84 last week, has remained in charge of Ivory Coast since he won in 2010 and was re-elected for a fourth term in October. Before the 2020 elections, Ouattara claimed the two-term limit for presidents did not apply to him because Ivory Coast changed its constitution in 2016. 

He attended the AFCON 2023 final, when Ivory Coast beat Nigeria in the stadium named after him.

Drogba, who runs his own charitable foundation and is regularly spotted at FIFA events, introduced the trophy to the crowd before kick-off. Ouattara lifted it on stage with head coach Emerse Fae, who featured alongside Drogba against Sudan, and then captain Max Gradel.

There was one person who Ivory Coast’s squad wanted to celebrate with more than anyone else, though. Wilfried Singo dashed over to the bald man in an orange shirt who was shouting and swearing with excitement on the side of the pitch.

Odilon Kossounou, Jonathan Bamba, Jean-Philippe Krasso, Nicolas Pepe and Christian Kouame all hugged him.

• A Tell Media report / From The Athletic