At the request of Paris, Houphouet-Boigny began forging relations with South Africa in October 1970, justifying his attitude by stating that "[t]he problems of racial discrimination, so painful, so distressing, so revolting to our dignity of Negros, must not be resolved, we believe, by force."
[110] He even proposed to the OAU in June 1971 that they follow his lead. In spite of receiving some support, his proposal was rejected. This refusal did not, however, prevent him from continuing his attempts to approach the
Pretoria regime. His attempts bore fruit in October of that year, when a semi-official meeting between a delegation of high level Ivorian officials and South African Prime Minister
B. J. Vorster was held in the capital of South Africa. Moreover, mindful of the Communist influence in Africa, he met Vorster in
Geneva in 1977, after the Soviet Union and
Cuba tried to collectively spread their influence in
Angolaand
Ethiopia.
[29] Relations with South Africa continued on an official basis until the end of his presidency.
[111]
Houphouët-Boigny and
Thomas Sankara, the leader of
Burkina Faso, had a highly turbulent relationship. Tensions reached their climax in 1985 when Ivory Coast Burkinabés accused authorities of being involved in a conspiracy to forcibly recruit young students to training camps in
Libya.
[112] Houphouët-Boigny responded by inviting the dissident Jean-Claude Kamboulé to take refuge in Côte d'Ivoire so that he could organise opposition to the Sankara regime. In 1987, Sankara was overthrown and assassinated in a coup.
[113] The coup may have had French involvement, since the Sankara regime had fallen into disfavour in France.
[114]Houphouët-Boigny was also suspected of involvement in the coup and in November, the PDCI asked the government to ban the sale of
Jeune Afrique following its allegations of Houphouët-Boigny's participation.
[115] The Ivorian president would have greatly benefited from the divisions in the Burkina Faso government. He contacted
Blaise Compaoré, the second-most powerful man in the regime; it is generally believed that they worked in conjunction with Laurent Dona Fologo, Robert Guéï and Pierre Ouédraogo to overthrow the Sankara regime.
[116]