“Agboville had a nickname: Red Zone. Tour Yacouba SFR has chosen to make it a zone of peace. Portrait of an elected official who builds …
— Zié Adama Coulibaly
THE PROFILE
There are men who choose the noise of power. He chose field work. Tour Yacouba, alias SFR, is one of these Ivorian political figures who built their legitimacy through over the long term, far from the big TV sets, as close as possible to the populations. Second deputy mayor of Agboville, delegate municipal councilor of the RHDP and regional advisor of Agnéby-Tiassa, he today embodies a certain idea of local commitment: sober, constant, anchored.
AxAfrique has carried out this spotlight on a profile that deserves to be known beyond borders of the Agnéby-Tiassa region.
AN ITINERARY BUILT IN THE SHADOWS OF THE TERRAIN
Tour Yacouba is not a fallen apparatchik. from the sky. His journey through the ranks of the RHDP is that of a grassroots man who climbed the ranks. the steps to the next level strength of presence and field work. He occupies To date, I have three simultaneous functions: second deputy to the mayor of Agboville, delegate to the mayor of Agboville. municipal councilor of the RHDP for the commune of Agboville, and regional advisor of Agnéby-Tiassa. Three caps which testify to a confidence granted by one's own, but also to a capacity for success. à juggle institutional, partisan and representative responsibilities.
In December 2022, he publicly announced his candidacy for the position. the candidacy for the town hall of Agboville, positioning himself as the man capable of definitively tilting the town into the RHDP camp. But a few months later, it was he himself who chose to withdraw. In June 2023, Touré Yacouba explained to the populations of the residential Cotivo district the reasons for his withdrawal in favor of the outgoing mayor N’cho Acho Albert, demonstrating a capacity for change. rare in politics: putting collective interest before personal ambition.
PEACE AS A GUIDELINE
What sets Touré Yacouba of other local executives is his constancy on a single message: peace. Not out of electoral opportunism. By conviction. À With the presidential election in October 2025 approaching, he launched a solemn appeal on September 24 from the premises of the Afrix-Excellence-Turey establishment. appeasement and peace restraint in political debate.
His sentence to the press sums up an entire life commitment:
“Agboville has suffered so much from political crises since 2000. Never again. Agboville wants peace.”
Touré Yacouba, 2nd deputy mayor of Agboville, delegate municipal of the RHDP
He also challenged journalists on their responsibility, inviting them to relay objective information, reminding us that the development of Agboville is a real reality. tangible. In an Ivorian political landscape still marked by by the scars of the post-electoral crises, this discourse of assumed appeasement is not a posture. It’s a signature.
AGBOVILLE, FORMER “RED ZONE”, TODAY’SHOWCASE OF COHÉSION
To understand the meaning of Touré's commitment; Yacouba, we must understand what was happening. Agboville. The capital of the Agnéby-Tiassa region, the town has long been the capital of the region. an area of acute political and ethnic tensions. The term “Red Zone” stuck to him; the skin like an inevitability. Tour Yacouba himself declared: “Agboville, formerly declared a Red Zone, is today returning to development. À As the presidential election approaches, we hope to be more moderate and bring peace.”
He does not attribute this turnaround only to public policies. He links him to a collective work of rebuilding the social bond, in which he was personally involved.
THE “Crazy HOLIDAYS” : SOCIAL COHENCE FROM BOTTOM
In August 2025, Touré Yacouba launched into action. Agboville the first edition of its concept “Vacances Folie”. Organized by himself as 2nd deputy mayor, this initiative notably included a “small poles” having gathered young people from various neighborhoods around union and conviviality. An initiative which may seem innocuous from the outside, but which reflects a profound philosophy: cohesion cannot be decreed, it is built in the courtyards, in the streets, in neighborhood stadiums.
The article from the Abidjan newspaper L’Intelligent which accompanies this projector bears witness to this: the contribution of the press was underlined, the journalists urged to do so. continue this dynamic by relaying information that soothes.
A MAN OF FAITH AND CLOSENESS NUN
In February 2026, Touré Yacouba proceeded to a presentation of donations for the benefit of the mosque and the Celestial Church in the Sogephia district, in direct response to the needs expressed by local religious communities. A mosque that needed food for Ramadan. A church whose well, the only source of water on the site, was seriously damaged. Two places of worship. Two communities. Only one elected official present. This gesture symbolizes a vision of local politics that goes beyond confessional divisions and reminds us that peace is also built in these small everyday gestures.
A FREAKING MOBILIZER FOR HIS PARTY
On a partisan level, Touré Yacouba is an active member of the RHDP on the Agnéby-Tiassa field. In June 2025, gathered at the Gnagoran Boua municipal library, he urged members of the EPR movement to going everywhere to sell the RHDP, including to activists of the opposition parties, affirming its conviction that victory was a matter of course. the presidential one was already there. plot.
Its role is that of the link between the national leadership of the party and the local activist base. A thankless role, invisible in the mainstream media, but decisive in the Ivorian electoral process.
WHAT TOURÉ YACOUBA REPRESENTS
In the political cartography of Ivory Coast, men like Touré Yacouba are often the great forgotten ones in the national media narrative. We are talking about ministers, presidents of institutions, mayors of large municipalities. Rarely second deputies of an interior city. However, it’s this level at which the transformation of a country is concretely played out: in the patient construction of a solid social fabric, in the reconciliation of neighborhoods, in interreligious dialogue, in football tournaments which bring together young people who could have found themselves on either side of a barricade.
Agboville is no longer the Red Zone. And men like Touré Yacouba has something to do with it.
