All student unions in Ivory Coast will be closed, the government has announced, following the murder of two students blamed on the powerful Students and Schools Federation (Fesci).
Several Fesci members have been arrested in connection with the murders of Khalifa Diomandé and Zigui Mars Aubin Déagoué, which took place in August and September.
Research at Félix-Houphouët-Boigny University in the capital Abidjan found an underground tunnel used to torture people and a brothel, authorities say.
Students tell the BBC it was an open secret that Fesci ran both illegal sites, but everyone was too scared to speak out.
“You wouldn’t have believed you were at a university in an organized country,” said a former student who asked to remain anonymous.
“I was often threatened by Fesci, they tried to rape me,” she told the BBC. “My boyfriend tried to stand up for me, but he got beaten up,” she claims. On other occasions she says she had to pay Fesci members to leave her alone.
She says she is still traumatized and has not set foot on campus since her ordeal ended eight years ago.
“I don’t know how it took so long, but now I feel relieved for the victims,” she added.
Extortion was common, students say.
“I had to pay $100 (£77) a month for my room,” explains Jose Aristide, “but they forced me to pay $250 a month.
“There was no other option. Everyone was afraid of them.”
On Thursday, Ivory Coast’s Security Council said it had carried out a series of raids in Abidjan and the central city of Bouaké, seizing more than 100 machetes and grenades.
They have also found and displaced 5,000 undeclared residents on university campuses in Abidjan, Bouaké and Daloa.
When the ban on student associations was announced that same day, there was celebration.
One lecturer told the BBC he welcomed the ban and said he hoped it would bring some peace to campuses.
Originally founded in the 1990s as a student organization, Fesci quickly grew into an anti-government protest group and was long suspected of involvement in organized crime.
For some it has also served as a springboard into politics.
Former Fesci leaders include Guillaume Soro – a rebel leader turned prime minister, and Charles Blé Goudé – a former youth minister who was subsequently acquitted of massive human rights abuses during the post-election violence a decade ago.
Additional reporting by Natasha Booty
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