Ouassa-Pehunco (45)

"I want to go and suffer where there is nothing": according to oral tradition, this phrase, spoken by Bariba hunters from Kouandé and Sinendé in the eighteenth century, gave Ouassa-Péhunco its name, from the Bariba word ouassara, to suffer. Nicknamed the "city of black stones," the commune covers 1,900 km² in the western part of Atacora department, between the Alibori and Mékrou valleys. It had 78,217 residents at the 2013 census, spread across three arrondissements — Péhunco, Gnémasson and Tobré — and 26 villages. Since 2014, it has cooperated with Kérou and Kouandé within the 2KP intercommunal association. A bus station, cross-border fuel trade and laterite-built architecture shape everyday life there.