Korhogo was founded in the early 18th century by
Nanguin, a warrior of
Seku Watara. His sister's descendant Zwakognon was chief in 1892, when the advancing army of
Babemba Traore captured
Sinématiali and forced him to give his son
Gbon Coulibaly as a hostage in 1892. Two years later Zwakognon died in a plague, and Gbon returned from
Sikasso to assume the chieftainship. By careful diplomacy he managed to keep the town from being sacked either by
Samory Toure or the French.
Civil War On 19 September 2002, Korhogo and
Bouaké were seized by disaffected former
soldiers, calling themselves "Patriotic Movement of Côte d'Ivoire" (Mouvement Patriotique de Côte d'Ivoire – MPCI), rebelling against the rule of
President Laurent Gbagbo. The
coup was allegedly led by
Robert Guéï, the former
military dictator overthrown in a popular uprising in 2000. Despite the formal cessation of hostilities between the government and rebels in 2003, Korhogo remains unstable, with continued fighting between rival political factions. In June 2004, forces loyal to rebel leader
Guillaume Soro claimed that his
Paris-based rival Ibrahim Coulibaly had attempted to
assassinate Soro, leading to gun battles which left 22 dead in Korhogo. In August 2004, the
United Nations' Ivorian mission announced that three
mass graves, containing at least 99 bodies, had been discovered in the town. On 29 November 2011, the
Associated Press reported that Gbagbo had been placed under house arrest in Korhogo, awaiting extradition to
The Hague to face charges at the
International Criminal Court. In 2014, the population of the sub-prefecture of Korhogo was 286,071. ==Villages==