Treichville is a thriving market in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where plastic bags remain the sole way of packaging food. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
ABDIJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, Sep 26 2014 (IPS)

In the middle of downtown Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, the aisles of a thriving supermarket are full of customers. But as they line up to pay for their items, there is one line to a cashier’s till that remains empty. It’s the “green cash register”, where the cashier does not provide plastic bags as this supermarket tries to implement a green policy. 

“People do not find it convenient to bring their own bags. But they are often angry that they have to line up while nobody comes here [to the green cash register],” the cashier tells IPS.

Increasing environmental consciousness is not the sole reason for Ivorian shops adopting green policies: the government has adopted new laws that will affect consumers.

Each year, Côte d’Ivoire produces 200,000 tonnes of plastic bags of which 40,000 go directly into the trash. Less than 20 percent of this plastic is recycled.

In this West African nation, the pressure is growing to find alternatives to plastic shopping bags — which have become an environmental curse. In several of the city’s neighbourhoods, used plastic bags clog gutters and float on the lagoon, causing floods, sanitation problems and health hazards.

Côte d’Ivoire has been choking on its plastic bags. But as the government tries to find solutions, consumers still need to adapt their habits to the changing regulations.

Solving the environmental disaster

In May 2013, the Ivorian government announced a ban on several types of plastic bags. It was meant to prohibit the production, importation, commercialisation, possession and the use of any non-biodegradable plastic bags made of lightweight polyethylene, or similar plastic derivates with a thickness of less than 50 microns.

Already, eight African countries are doing the same. It is an initiative that started in Rwanda and South Africa in 2004, with the two nations deciding to levy extra taxes on plastic bags. Other countries that have banned plastic bags are Botswana, Eritrea, Kenya, Mauritania, Tanzania and Uganda.

But pressure from the plastic industry forced Côte d’Ivoire to back down and to postpone the ban until this August, while trying to find solutions to the industry’s concerns. The government could not simply ignore 7,500 jobs and an industry worth about 50 billion CFA (97 million dollars).

The ban was only applied in August, which allowed the industry enough time to produce biodegradable bags and develop alternatives.

The government also tried to ensure that the market was ready for the transition.

The industry has also had more time to invest in producing bio-degradable bags and more effective recycling infrastructure.

“Our objective is to, on a long-term basis, reduce and replace all bags with reusable bags, and to orient consumers about other ways of carrying merchandise, like [using] cloth bags and baskets.

“If the industry picks up, it will generate long term-profits of annually 17.1 billions CFA [33 million dollars] and will create 1,900 jobs,” explained Ivorian Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan at the beginning of September.

Changing habits

In Treichville Market, one of the busiest commercial areas of the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire, the sellers have other concerns.

“People do not have the money to buy an entire bottle of oil. So we divide small portions into plastic bags [to sell],” Mohammed Cissé, a small shop owner in one of Abidjan’s biggest markets, tells IPS.

“It is an economical problem, I think. People do not have the money to buy containers. Those plastic bags are cheap. Reusable boxes are expensive.”

For Cissé, having consumers reuse their plastic bags will mean he will save money since he currently covers the cost of the plastic bags he packages his oil in.

“But people will not understand this! I cover most of the cost of the plastic bags, which is about 10 CFA per bag [3 cents]. Since I give away hundreds of bags per day, I see the total cost,” he says.

In a country where almost half the population lives on less than two dollars per day, buying reusable bags is a challenge, says Cissé.

His neighbour, Jean-Marie Kouadio, is wary about the new bags.

“I have seen biodegradable bags. They are very weak. Where is the benefit if you have to use three bags instead of one?”

He tells IPS that ecological solutions are not available for the smaller bags that he uses to package oil and salt.

Further away, Awa Diabaté faces a different concern. Diabaté, 54, sells donuts on a street corner, right beside a heap of abandoned dirty plastic bags. She sees the point of the ban, but believes that the health concerns behind the ban will be a challenge if proper solutions are not found.

“The individual wrappings allows me to keep the donuts clean from dirt. Often, small kids come to buy food. If they do not carry the food in [the plastic], they will drop it on the ground.

“Reusing bags, means cleaning them. Many people will not take good care. I am pretty sure some will get sick from that,” she tells IPS.

Diabaté’s concerns are down to earth. But they reveal a reality difficult to ignore: plastic bags are essential to Ivorian daily life. And solutions need to fit that.

Edited by: Nalisha Adams

Two health care workers clean their feet in a bucket of water containing bleach after they leave an Ebola isolation facility during an Ebola simulation at Biankouman Hospital in Côte d’Ivoire. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
KANDOPLEU/ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, Aug 26 2014 (IPS)

The nurse carefully packs the body into a plastic bag and then leaves the isolation tent, rinsing his feet in a bucket of water that contains bleach. Then he carefully takes off his safety glasses, gloves and mask and burns them in a jerry can.

Behind a cordon, hundreds of people are watching, including Ivorian Health Minister Raymonde Goudou Coffie and several local media.

They face no risks even if the deadly virus kills up to 90 percent of the infected persons: there is no Ebola outbreak in Côte d’Ivoire. And the corpse is a mannequin. This is an Ebola simulation at the district hospital in Biankouma.

“We want to test our medical teams. And see what we can do to improve our reaction,” explains the health minister, a pharmacist by training who does not hesitate to provide her in-sights.

Schoolteacher Edinie Veh Gale is in the crowd watching the exercise. “It is not translated in Yacuba, the local language. So people around do not understand. But it is good though. At least, it piqued people’s curiosity and they will search for information,” she tells IPS in French.

While the attention on the epidemic that has now been declared “out-of-control” is focused on the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria, unaffected countries in the region, like Côte d’Ivoire, are struggling to understand what to do keep the disease away.

While strict epidemiological-control measures have been applied, including closing borders and banning people travelling into  Côte d’Ivoire from countries where the disease is prevalent, the current outbreak has highlighted huge gaps in prevention methods.

Especially since some citizens refuse to submit to restrictive measures.

Until now, the previous Ebola outbreaks were contained in villages in Central Africa where distance and isolation were important factors in stopping the disease.

But the current wave that resulted in over 1,135 deaths — making it the worst Ebola outbreak ever — has spread to several urban centres. In the cities restrictive measures have been met with reduced success.

Susan Shepler, an associate professor at American University and a specialist in education and conflict, is back from six weeks of research in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Despite several measures adopted by authorities, she noticed that while there have been some developments in the population’s awareness, most people in those countries have a deep mistrust for government assistance.

“It is not simply a mistrust of the state. It is a mistrust of the system. People don’t see the boundaries of the state,“ Shepler tells IPS. She explains that citizens believe politicians enter government to enrich themselves, and they therefore do not think that the state could help them.

She says that trust has yet to be built as many people, especially those who reside in opposition strongholds, see Ebola as a government plot or a religious curse.

In Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, government services and trained medical workers are barely available in regions infected by Ebola.

So when heavily-equipped medical teams, often backed by foreign experts, go to affected areas, it has been difficult for those local communities to instantly trust them.

“Western media tends to present the crisis with a focus on frontline work and chaotic scenes. But what is missing, [that needs to be] understood, is everyday life. There is a rationale for citizens’ actions,” says Shepler.

Building trust beforehand

It is difficult to discern what are good practices to fight Ebola.

Côte d’Ivoire may not have any cases, but it is uncertain if this is because the country took the right approach to the disease or if it was simply a matter of luck.

But what is clear is that Côte d’Ivoire fears being the next site of the outbreak.

Around the country, the government has multiplied preventative measures.

Last March, it banned bush meat. And since then the government has adopted several measures to contain the epidemic, including implementing screening for the disease at borders and banning direct flights to affected areas.

Now, the government has recommended that people stop hugging and shaking hands, insisting that they comply with strict hygiene rules.

The government has made also several efforts to build the trust of its people by getting local authorities and medical staff that are know to local communities involved in education campaigns.

And citizen’s initiatives are also multiplying.

In a bank in Abidjan’s commercial district, a security guard gives a shot of hand sanitiser to any client using the banking machine. “It’s for your own health,” he says.

In front of the same bank, street hawkers who help drivers park their cars refuse to shake hands.

Social media has exploded with various initiatives, notably the #MousserpourEbola (#FoamingAgainstEbola) challenge, which is used to raise money and public awareness about Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Launched by a young blogger, Edith Brou, videos of Ivorians throwing a bucket of soap water on themselves have became viral. When one is nominated for the challenge, you are required to throw a bucket of soap water on yourself and distribute three bottles of hand sanitiser. They you don’t agree to the soap shower, then you have to distribute nine bottles of hand sanitiser.

“Ivorians play down everything through humour. In spite of the funny aspect of it, the message is forwarded and listened to. There are many actions like mine. We cannot only stand by. We are responsible for our lives,” she tells IPS.

In the village of Pekanhouebli, in the west of the country and close the the Liberian border, there is no electricity and no internet access. But in this village that strongly supports the opposition, a citizen’s committee has been created to mobilise the community against Ebola.

“We did not believe that Ebola was true. We thought it was a white man’s disease from cities when authorities came to us,”senior resident Serge Tian tells IPS. “But when we heard it on the radio, we realised it was true. And we started listening to the nurse who would visit the village.”

Tian does not shake hands with IPS as we leave — it’s because he now understands a bit more about how the disease is spread. And he knows why he should comply to these restrictive measures.

Edited by: Nalisha Adams

Translator Serge Tian in village of Gueyede in south-west Côte d’Ivoire. He translates sub-prefect Kouassi Koffi’s message about the spread of Ebola in West Africa and how people can recognise the virus and avoid infection. Credit: Marc-Andre Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
GUEYEDE, Côte d’Ivoire, Aug 16 2014 (IPS)

The whole village of Gueyede in south-west Côte d’Ivoire gathers under the tattered roof of a shelter as the rain drizzles outside, and listens carefully as sub-prefect Kouassi Koffi talks.

“We are not allowed any complacency. You might not know Ebola. And it is better that you don’t,” says Koffi, the highest governmental authority of the area, through translator Serge Tian.

Koffi explains how one can contract the virus and how to recognise the basic symptoms of Ebola hemorrhagic fever.

Credit: Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

He has held hundreds of meetings like this since the first Guinean cases of Ebola appeared last March. He travels from village to village in the Tiobli region he is in charge of, often visiting the same village two, three or four times, to utter the same message.

After the stop at Gueyede, IPS will follow him in another village, to answer the same questions from locals with well-prepared lists.

“It is a lot of work. But I think the population gets the message as we discuss [Ebola],” Koffi tells IPS as he drives his SUV on a particularly bad road.

His peer sub-prefects and prefects hold the same meetings in other Ivorian regions. This West African nation has had no cases of Ebola yet. But the Liberia border is few kilometres away. And the epicentre of the current Ebola outbreak is not more than 100 kilometres in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

“We should not wait to have a first case of the illness to take measures. Public mobilisation is important as the state cannot be everywhere,” said the Health Minister Raymonde Goudou Coffie during her last press conference on Thursday, Aug. 14.

Two of out of the four countries hit by the current epidemic, now declared out of control by the World Health Organisation (WHO), share a border with Côte d’Ivoire. Nigeria is the fourth country in West Africa that has had cases of Ebola.

And many worry that Côte d’Ivoire will soon be the next country to be hit by the most severe outbreak of the illness since its discovery in 1976. So far, there have been more than 1,000 deaths and the number of infected people is expected to soon hit 2,000. However, WHO said Friday, Aug. 15 that those numbers were “vastly underestimated”.

Credit: Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

Moving fast to implement preventive measures

When the first cases appeared in Guinea last March, the Ivorian government took several preventive measures, including the creation of advanced detection centres, and a strict ban on bush meat — which is believed to be a vector of contamination for the Ebola virus.

For the inhabitants of Gueyede, it is a big deal to not eat bush meat. Most of their protein comes from it. They especially fancy grass-cutter, a big rodent. Giving up this popular delicacy has meant that Ivorians had to change their habits. But they did. And government has closed all bush meat markets in the area.

“At first, we thought Ebola was a joke — a rumour invented." -- Albertine Beh Kbenon, Gueyede villager

Nevertheless, locals still have to figure out what to eat and what not to eat. “We can eat fish. But we can’t eat bush meat. So can we eat crocodile?” asks Gueyede chief Bernard Gole Koehiwon.

Puzzled, the under-prefect redirects the question to the area nurse, Drissa Soro. “I’m not sure. But I think it is safe. I will check and come back to be sure,” Soro says.

Diet is not the sole concern, and is not enough to fight the spread of a disease that kills almost 90 percent of infected persons and which spreads mostly through body fluids.

At public meetings villagers learn what to do if someone seems to have the illness. But they mostly share their thoughts, try to figure out how the disease spreads, and to sift out the facts amid the rumours about the virus that spread very fast.

The sub-prefect has a difficult task explaining why it is dangerous to shelter a member of their family from Liberia. In Côte d’Ivoire, the ethnic groups here are split along the Liberia’s borders with families having members living in both countries.

In addition, 50,000 Ivorians are still sheltered in refuge camps in Liberia since the 2010-2011 electoral crisis here.

One lady at the meeting, who came back from Liberia few weeks ago, worries about who will take care of her old parents that she left in the refugee camp. She travelled home ahead of them to prepare the house for their return. The sub-prefect says that they are taken care of, but it is difficult to find the words to reassure her.

Involving communities

Changing diet and avoiding family members are difficult changes. But Ivorian authorities are betting that it is possible through peer education.

Once the under-prefect leaves, community leaders push the message. In each village, a coordination committee incorporating several members from all ages and genders is created to pursue the discussion.

“Those villages are very isolated. Some of them are not accessible by car,” explains sub-prefect Koffi. It would not be possible to contain an eventual pandemic without community support.

Nurse Soro agrees. “I am on alert since last March. Every time I see someone, I talk to him about Ebola. I try to see if there could be possible cases,” he tells IPS.

As there are no doctors in the area, Soro is the most qualified medical source for about 6,000 inhabitants. Even if he drives from village to village in his little motorcycle on muddy tracks, he does not have the time to see everyone.

“Community health aides are necessary. They know how to speak to their community. And they are able to maintain presence for me.”

Albertine Beh Kbenon is part of the coordination committee in Gueyede. “At first, we thought Ebola was a joke — a rumour invented,” she tells IPS.

She is now taking the threat seriously enough to go from door to door and to talk about it. She was herself first very sceptical of what authorities were saying. When the local and international media, especially radio, relayed the information, she realised that it was serious.

“In Liberia they took this as a joke. They believed the government was lying. This killed them. We don’t want this to happen here,” concludes Kbenon.

Edited by: Nalisha Adams

Prisoners at Saliakro Prison Farm in Côte d’Ivoire. Prisoners, who were selected on account that they are non-violent and condemned for short and medium term sentences, have a relative freedom to move within the gated farm. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
SALIAKRO/ABDIJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, Aug 1 2014 (IPS)

François Kouamé, prisoner Number 67, proudly shows off a sow and her four piglets. Dressed in his rubber boots, he passes by two new tractors as he happily makes his way to a field where pretty soon cassava and corn plants will start growing. “Look at those sprouts. It is a lot of work!”

Being imprisoned in one of the world’s most impoverished country’s is far from an easy ride. But Ivorian authorities are searching for alternatives to the overcrowded prisons and malnourished prisoners here. And they just may have found the answer — in a farm.

The Saliakro Prison Farm, where Kouamé is currently serving out the remainder of his one-year prison sentence, is the first of its kind in Côte d’Ivoire. He was one of the first detainees to be sent here in December 2013.

The 21 buildings on the farm, built on a former summer camp, are to provide accommodation for 150 prisoners who have been sentenced for less than three years for non-violent crimes. Here they will learn new skills in farming.“Our objective is truly to make prison time an opportunity for a sustainable change in life.” -- Bernard Aurenche, country representative of Prisoners Without Borders

For Kouamé, being on a farm is a relief compared to the six months he spent in Soubré State Prison for cutting trees in a neighbouring cocoa plantation.

“We were sleeping four persons in a space that could contain only one person. And we were granted only a bowl of rice per day,” says the young man.

Now he eats three meals a day, and stays in a clean room with 16 other prisoners. Each man has his own bunk bed, a closet and plenty of space to move about in.

Mamadou Doumbia, 32, is serving a two-year sentence for stealing computers. The quiet and articulate man is relieved to be on the farm. He spent 11 months in Agboville prison, in Agnéby Region close to Abidjan, the country’s economic capital.

He reveals a dark portrait of life in Agboville prison. Rape, malnutrition and pests are some of the many things he says he witnessed.

“I feel like being human again,” he tells IPS.

Though life on the farm is no vacation. Inmates must wake up at 5:30 am and be ready for work no later than 7am. They work till 3pm, only taking a short break for lunch. Evenings are their own to do with as they will, but they have to be in their dormitories by 9pm.

Through the Saliakro project, Ivorian authorities and backers hope to improve inmate conditions, reduce costs and help reintegration.

Overpopulation and malnutrition

Côte d’Ivoire has relatively modern prison facilities compared to the rest of West Africa, where most countries have not invested in new prisons since the 1970s. In neighbouring Ghana, the Jamestown Colonial fort only ceased to be used as a penitential facility in 2008.

In Guinea-Bissau, the country had to wait for the United Nations to build a prison in order to stop cramming prisoners into what is now a beautiful colonial house, renamed Casa dos Direitos or the House of Human rights. Mali, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia all have overcrowded prisons dating back to the 1960s.

Still, Ivorian prisons were planned for another era. In the Abidjan Detention and Correction Centre, known by its French acronym MACA, overpopulation is an understatement. The building, conceived in the 1980s for 1,500 prisoners now has a population of over 5,000.

“Hygiene is very difficult. There are frequent water disruptions,” Jean a prisoner at MACA, who prefers to remain anonymous as prisoners are not allowed to speak to journalists, tells IPS over the phone.

And now, even if the government and international donors start to reopen detention centres in the north, closed by a decade of de facto separation with the south, congestion in state prisons remain dire.

The prison in Man, a town in west Côte d’Ivoire, holds several perpetrators of the 2010-2011 post-electoral crisis that resulted in over 3,000 deaths.

While it has been renovated in the last year, newer does not mean less crowded. It was built to hold only 300 inmates but it currently holds twice as many. Didier, who is awaiting trial in Man Prison, says the basic meals of rice have left him hungry. “We don’t [get to] eat three meals. Most of the time we eat only once,” he tells IPS over the phone.

In May, five prisoners from Man died and several others were hospitalised. Dr. Viviane Lawson Kiniffo, the prison’s doctor, told Ivorian media that promiscuity, malnutrition and hygiene were big issues.

Self-sufficiency and reintegration

Back in Saliakro, Justice Minister Gnenema Coulibaly inaugurates Côte d’Ivoire’s first prison farm in front a selected group of VIPs. “More farm prisons will soon be open,” he says.

Coulibaly has several reasons to be satisfied. Aside from improving inmate’s living conditions, once fully functional, Saliakro Prison Farm will relieve prison budgets by several hundred dollars as, besides feeding its own prisoners, it will produce enough to make a profit from selling produce on local markets.

But the 450 hectares of are not only there to deliver a relief to state budget.

“It is more than about feeding themselves. It is also about getting those prisoners back to a normal life. It is about learning new skills and being able to reintegrate and participate fully in society,” Saliakro’s superintendent, Pinguissie Ouattara, tells IPS. “This is about bringing an alternative to crime, and decreasing the crime rate.”

Saliakro is not on any map: this town does not exist. But it is the contraction of Kro, which means “village” in the local Baoule language and “Salia”, the first name of former superintendent Salia Ouattara who died in 2007.

“Our objective is truly to make prison time an opportunity for a sustainable change in life,” Bernard Aurenche, country representative of Prisoners Without Borders, a French NGO, tells IPS.

He explains that the 150 prisoners are backed by trained agronomists. Participants in the project will deepen their agricultural knowledge and will be paid 300 CFA (about 70 cents) per day for work.

“This will allow them to collect money to grow their own crops once they leave. It is also about reinsertion into real life. And getting confidence.”

One of the tractors that Prisoners Without Borders has bought for the Saliakro Farm project in Côte d’Ivoire. Learning to use modern machinery was an important step in the programme. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

Kouamé is more realistic. He was a farmer before, but tells IPS that he has learned much from the agronomists here. “I have learnt here many things that will make my farm more profitable, notably by diversifying production.”

But the road is still bumpy. Funding, which has been provided by the European Union, now needs to be secured for a longer term. And still, a better selection process of prisoners needs to be found as, so far, selection of participants was not based on any clear criteria.

But prison superintendent Ouattara, who also manages the Dimbokro Prison a few kilometres from Saliakro, is positive.

“It is the beginning. We will need to adjust. But we strongly believe that there will be a positive outcome for those men. Much more than leaving them by themselves doing nothing.”

Edited by: Nalisha Adams

Côte d’Ivoire’s economic capital, Abidjan, has developed a public transport strategy, which includes reserving a bus line and several levels of quality service for the middle class and civil servants. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
ABDIJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, Jun 4 2014 (IPS)

Two years ago, it would have taken Catherine Adjoua almost an hour to travel from M’Badon, the isolated fishing area where she lives that has no asphalt roads, to reach her workplace some 13 kilometres away in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s economic capital.

“The travel was harsh, and the old buses very uncomfortable,“ she tells IPS.

Thanks to the government’s newly-built asphalt freeway connecting M’Badon to Abidjan, Adjoua’s commute now takes about half an hour — when there is no traffic.

The city, which is divided in two parts by the Ebrie Lagoon, has several congestion points, including two bridges and several overpasses. And now it is also an open construction site.

An overpass linking the bridge to the highway was open for traffic a month ago, and several other roads and overpasses will soon complement the network.

A third bridge is under construction that is set to be inaugurated in December 2014. It was, however, planned in 1995 for traffic of that era but its construction was postponed by the multiple crises affecting the country since then. This West African nation was affected by the recent post-electoral political crisis from 2010 to 2011. More than 3,000 people died in the violence that followed former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to concede victory to current President Allassane Ouattara.

The construction of a fourth bridge will start in the coming months, the government says.

By all appearances, it seems that the vehicle will dictate Abidjan’s development.

“There has been an important increase in vehicle traffic in the last years. With the crises, people who couldn’t afford cars indebted themselves to get one,” explains Pierre Dimba, coordinator of the Presidential Emergency Programmes for Infrastructure, a governmental agency responsible for supervising Côte d’Ivoire’s public works.

Dimba tells IPS that the crises resulted in many households buying two or three cars as they feared insecurity and felt they would be at risk using public transportation.

Abidjan residents also now prefer to live in suburbs, away from central areas that were hotspots of violence during the 2010 to 2011 post-electoral crisis. It resulted in an urban boom, which is yet to be quantified as the country’s first census of 1998 is still ongoing. However it also led to greater congestion on roads that were built well before this suburban development.

But the government has a firm desire to develop public transportation. And not only for those who have cars.

“We have made it a priority to rehabilitate public transport routes first [after the 2010 to 2011 post-electoral crisis]. Then, we decided to increase connections between living and working areas,” explains Dimba.

The impact is already visible for Abidjan’s two million daily commuters. Armand Koffi, a 58-year-old civil servant, can afford a car. But he has a good reason for not driving one: he hates driving.

“Abidjan drivers are crazy and aggressive! I prefer sitting, chatting, or reading my book,” he tells IPS.

He says that the recent work on the roads has reduced his commute to his suburban home by 30 minutes. “And the new buses are comfortable.”

Sotra — the public agency that is 60,2 percent-owned by Côte d’Ivoire’s government and 39,8 percent by a private consortium — has had a monopoly on public transportation within Abidjan since independence in 1960.

Legendary singer Lougah François even sang about all the destinations you can go to with Sotra for 50 CFAs (10 cents) in the 1970s.

After cumulating a deficit over the years, Sotra is set to see better days. The public agency has an investment of 150 billion CFA (about 300 million dollars) and two-thirds of this will go towards providing new buses and boats. The boats operate on Ebrie Lagoon.

So far, it has received about 500 new buses in 2013, with funding for a total of 2,000 buses in 2016, as well as 100 shuttle boats in 2016.

Sotra has made several attempts to increase its appeal to civil servants and the middle class, like Koffi. For 25,000 CFA per month (about 50 dollars), he is able to take an express bus from his office to his neighbourhood, with guaranteed seats. Sotra offers lower prices on normal routes, making the price more accessible to the lower income groups. And it has also modified its lines after making a geo-localisation studies of what are the busiest routes.

“The government has committed resources for further developments,” explains Dimba.

In spite of the expansion plans, Sotra currently owns 20 shuttle boats, running since the 1980s, which offer fast commuting for 100 to 200 CFAs (20 to 40 cents) between four different points on the Ebrie Lagoon.

The government has now allowed private owners to run shuttle boats on the lagoon. Turkish firm Yildirim and Ivorian firm SNEDAI will soon launch 45 shuttle boats. Their business interests amount to an investment of 20 billion CFA (about 41.5 million dollars).

Adjoua hopes that they will open a line between her house in M’Badon and her work. “It would be so much faster!”

But the Ivorian government’s commitment to public transportation went a step further when it announced, a month ago, that an urban train will be built in Abidjan.

“This infrastructure will solve Abidjan’s traffic jam problems. It will heal the city from important economic loss,” said Transport Minister Gaoussou Touré.

The train will cost 650 billion CFA (about 1.4 billion dollars), and will be paid for by a consortium consisting of French group Bouygues and two Korean firms; Dongsan Engineering and Hyundai Rotem. A portion of existing rails will open up for commuters by 2017. About 37 railways will connect the country, with a terminus at Abidjan’s airport. It is planned to transport 300,000 commuters per day.

In a downtown bus station, Yacinthe Yao and his teenage friends are excited about the train service. “That will make our life soooooo much easier.”

For the young man and his group of buddies in brown uniforms, there are no express buses. Their bus fare may cost only a monthly 3,000 CFA (about six dollars), but they have to fight for a place in an overpacked bus.

“We call it the Sardine line,” jokes one his friends. A few metres from where he stands, a train station will be built.

“It is good news, but we will be old when it starts to run. I was not even born when they started to work on the third bridge,” adds Kodjo, another friend.

Chimpanzees are one of the many endangered species that tourists will have the opportunity to see in Côte d’Ivoire’s Taï National Park. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
TAI NATIONAL PARK, Côte d’Ivoire, May 9 2014 (IPS)

Jonas Sanhin Touan has big dreams. As he sits under a canopy, he greets the rare tourist to Gouleako, one of the many villages near the entrance of Côte d’Ivoire’s Taï National Park, with a meal.

He hopes to raise the money to build a hotel on the three hectares of land he has purchased. “Here will be the restaurant,” the man everyone calls Aimée tells IPS, pointing to what is still bush.

The Taï National Park is a rare forest, one of the last intact tropical rain forests in West Africa. Stretching some 3,300 square kilometres, it is the region’s biggest tropical forest and also a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation World Heritage site.

But there are obstacles to Touan’s dream.  “Cocoa planters have a very difficult life. Ecotourism is an opportunity for a better future.” -- local villager Jonas Sanhin Touan

Situated in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, the park lies close to Liberia border and is only accessible by a seven-hour drive on pot-holed path from Abidjan, the country’s economic capital.

A lack of reliable public transport, conflict and sporadic violence are other threats to Touan’s dream. So too is encroaching deforestation.

To reach this remote area from Abidjan one has to cross several classified forests, of which 80 percent have already been cut down, according the government. Instead of the lush tropical vegetation that once covered the area, there are now carefully-planted fields, mostly of cocoa, but also of coffee, rubber and palm oil trees.

But ecotourism may just be the solution for a community in search of a better and sustainable future. Since January 2014, about a hundred tourists have been part of a tour organised by the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF) and the Ivorian forest protection department, known by its French acronym, OIPR.

However, it is still in its early stages, and the numbers of tourists it attracts are modest.

“Of course, this will take time. But this area is beautiful. I think that ecotourism will bring desperately-needed money,” says Touan. Currently, 80 percent of villagers earn their living through cocoa, making about 1,5 million CFA (about 3,185 dollars) per household annually.

But demographic pressure usually results in people burning down forests in order to increase their cocoa harvesting area.

The forest’s chimpanzee population has declined by about 80 percent in the last two decades, according the World Wide Fund for Nature.

And four other species from this forest are also on the red list of threatened species: pygmy hippopotamus, olive colobus monkeys, leopards and jentink’s duiker, a forest-dwelling duiker.

Poachers are partly responsible for this disappearance, but the destruction of the forest remains the main reason for the decline.

“The pressure around the park is very important,” Christophe Boesch, a primatology professor and WCF’s West Africa director, tells IPS.

He sees the current migration of people from the northern regions of Côte d’Ivoire, and from neighbouring countries like Burkina Faso and Mali, as a direct consequence of global warming.

“West Africa faced dramatic climate changes in the last 50 to 60 years. The Sahel region has become a desert. This creates a dramatic demographic explosion in Côte d’Ivoire,” he explains.

This flow of workers made Côte d’Ivoire the world’s biggest cocoa producer, but at the cost of Ivorian forests.

Villagers from Gouleako, one of the many villages outside Côte d’Ivoire’s Taï National Park perform a traditional ceremony for tourists. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

In Gouleako, the villagers perform a traditional ceremony for the half a dozen tourists seated on couches, being served palm wine.

The tourists will soon be transported to the OIPR-run eco hotel in Djouroutou, a nearby town. Later, they will be guided along the muddy trails of the Taï National Park to see the chimpanzees or take a ride on the Cavally River, which divides Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire.

OIPR and WCF hope that by boosting ecotourism, locals will see the economic value of preserving the forest, and the several unique species that it shelters.

“We hope by this project to teach people, more the local population than the tourists, about the added-value of a forest,” Emmanuelle Normand, WCF’s country director, tells IPS.

WCF says that several projects have proven to aid the survival of endangered species including in forests in the Great Lake regions.

Valentin Emmanuel, the deputy chief of Gouleako, remembers a time when he was still a kid when elephants crossed rice paddies and chimpanzees came out from the forest to play in cocoa trees.

“Before, we were living with the wildlife close to us. Now, you have to go far away, deep into the forest, to see that,” he tells IPS.

While he may be one of the majority of villagers who earn their livelihood from cocoa, he knows that the only way to return the forest to what it was during his childhood is to introduce more people to it. Touan knows it too.

“Cocoa planters have a very difficult life. Ecotourism is an opportunity for a better future,” says Touan.

Thierry N’Doufou and his team of IT specialists developed a tablet — the Qelasy — specifically for the Ivorian market as they aim to bring local school kids into the digital era. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
ABIDJAN, Apr 15 2014 (IPS)

When Ivorian Thierry N’Doufou saw local school kids suffering under the weight of their backpacks full of textbooks, it sparked an idea of how to close the digital gap where it is the largest — in local schoolrooms.

N’Doufou is one of 10 Ivorian IT specialists who developed the Qelasy — an 8-inch, Ivorian-engineered tablet that is set to be released next month by his technology company Siregex.The parent- and teacher-controlled tablet replaces all textbooks, correspondence books, calculators and the individual chalkboards often used in Ivorian classrooms.

“It is more than me feeling sorry for them. It is also about filling the digital gap between the south and the north, and bringing Ivorian education into the 21st century,” N’Doufou tells IPS.

Qelasy means “classroom” in several African languages, including Akan, Malinke, Lingala and Bamileke.

The Qelasy team began by converting all government-approved Ivorian textbooks into digital format.

“We were obligated to process everything in a way to have quality images for high definition screens. It is a lot of work,” explains N’Doufou, who is CEO of Siregex.

“We also enriched the curriculum with images and videos in way to make the educational experience more convivial.”

A solution to Ivorian problems 

The tablet uses an Android operating system and is resistant to water splashes, dust, humidity and heat.

“The Qelasy is protected against everything that an African pupil without transportation might encounter during their walk home from school,” says N’Doufou.

“We knew we needed our own product … Our clients’ needs are very specific,” he explained.

The parent- and teacher-controlled tablet replaces all textbooks, correspondence books, calculators and the individual chalkboards often used in Ivorian classrooms.

It can also be programmed to allow kids to surf the web or play games according to a pre-defined timetable. Siregex staff have also developed a store where parents and educators can buy over 1,000 elements like apps, educational materials and books.

While the Qelasy is currently focused on education, its marketing director Fabrice Dan tells IPS that users will soon be able to use it for other things. “We believe in technology as a way to create positive changes. And we believe in education. But eventually, we will present solutions in other fields, like agriculture and microcredit,” he says.

Qelasy was launched at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress 2014.  Exactly how much it will sell for has not yet been determined, but it is expected to be priced between 275 and 315 dollars.

That’s a steep price in a country where, according to government figures, only two million of its 23 million people are classified as middle class, earning between two and 20 dollars a day.

The Qelasy — an 8-inch, Ivorian-engineered tablet that is set to be released in May by local technology company Siregex. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

While N’Doufou expects the government to purchase a few tablets for use in schools, this product will mostly benefit the country’s middle and upper classes.

For now, it is only available for the Ivorian market, but the firm is targeting Francophone and Anglophone Africa.

However, the biggest challenge to the success of the product remains the electricity deficit. In a country where, according to the World Bank, only 59 percent of the population has access to electricity, a tablet with an eight-hour battery life faces limited penetration.

But N’Doufou says “There is an 80 percent cellphone penetration rate in Côte d’Ivoire in spite of the low electricity penetration. People find solutions in villages. They will for this too.”

While N’Doufou says “most of the know-how comes from here,” the Qelasy was assembled in the Chinese manufacturing hub of Shenzen, where 10,000 units have been produced.

Other Ivorian Tech Solutions 

The Qelasy is merely the latest in locally-developed technologies designed specifically to answer Ivorian problems.

Last week, young Ivorian programmer Regis Bamba launched an app to record the licence plate numbers and other details of taxis. Taxi Tracker allows a user to send this information about the taxi they are travelling in to selected users who can follow their journey in real time.

It is an attempt to find a way to prevent incidents like the murder of young Ivorian model Awa Fadiga, who was attacked during a taxi ride home in March.

The story of Fadiga’s tragic death gripped the nation as it exposed gaps in the country’s security and healthcare systems. She had been left untreated in a comatose state for more than 12 hours at a local hospital, which allegedly refused to treat her until payment for her care was received.

“It is my reaction to her death. I saw her picture, and I thought that could be my little sister. I told myself that I could not just sit back with my arms crossed,” Bamba tells IPS.

“It is my concrete solution as a citizen until the authorities do something meaningful to protect citizens. So Awa’s death will not be in vain.”

Another application, Mô Ni Bah, was developed by Jean Delmas Ehui in 2013 and allows Ivorians to declare births through SMS.

Trained locals then transfer the information provided in the SMSes to a registration authority. It has been another important invention in a country where the great distance between rural areas and government centres has hindered birth registration. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, almost a third of births are undeclared here.

Bacely Yoro Bi, a technology evangelist, internet strategist and organiser of ConnecTIC — a gathering of Abidjan’s IT enthusiasts — says there is definitively a boom in the local IT business.

“There is a lot happening here in terms of technology, although it is still limited to Abidjan. There are several start-ups that have been created with a local focus,” he tells IPS.

Part of the success, says Yoro Bi, is because of the cooperation among developers.

“Qelasy has been possible because there is a techie community that support each other,” N’Doufou points out.

Yoro Bi says that Côte d’Ivoire’s inventions should be exported to the rest of West Africa and to the world.

With the creation of two free trade zones dedicated to technology in Abidjan’s suburbs, and investments in internet infrastructure, he predicts that inventors like N’Doufou and Bamba now have the potential to go beyond the national borders.

A shopping mall in Côte d’Ivoire. While malls like this appeal to the upper middle class and the upper classes, several supermarkets and stores are beginning to targeting the middle class. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
ABIDJAN, Mar 27 2014 (IPS)

“I’m middle class. Definitively,” Sonia Anoh, a young and independent 30-year-old Ivorian tells IPS. Anoh has a master’s degree, earns 1,470 dollars a month working in marketing, lives alone, owns a car and is now shopping for a home. 

But while Anoh freely talks about her economic status, not many others brag so easily about being middle class in this West African nation.

Defining the African “middle class” is a challenge. For the World Bank, it comprises everyone who earns between two and 20 dollars per day. It’s a range that is far too broad and while the African Development Bank uses the same income range, it emphasises the need to subdivide the middle class into two.The middle class here has become a more diverse, complex grouping that is not necessarily just comprised of civil servants anymore.

The upper middle class, by this definition, earns between 10 and 20 dollars a day, and a vulnerable lower class is one that earns between two and four dollars a day. The latter are just marginally above the poverty line of 1.5 dollars a day and can easily slip back into it.

Côte d’Ivoire used to have the strongest middle class in West Africa until it was seriously hit by the post-1980 economic meltdown and the recent post-electoral political crisis from 2010 to 2011. More than 3,000 people died in the violence that followed former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to concede victory to current President Allassane Ouattara. Now the Ivorian middle class represents over two million of this country’s 23 million inhabitants, according to government figures.

While Côte d’Ivoire’s middle class may have shrunk, there are signs that this economic group appears to be slowly starting to increase. But its expansion remains limited by two decades of economic problems and conflict.

According to the Moscow-based Institute for Emerging Market Studies, the African middle class will rise three times from 32 million in 2009 to 107 million by 2030 — the largest increase in the world. And with the World Bank predicting that Côte d’Ivoire’s economy will grow at a rate of 8.2 percent for 2014, there is hope that this boom will lift many more of the country’s people out of poverty.

Growing or disappearing?

“Building a strong middle class was an important preoccupation for former president Félix Houphouet-Boigny (1905-1993),” Professor Marcel Benie Kouadio, economist and dean at the Abidjan Private University Faculty tells IPS.

“At the time, [middle class] meant mostly civil servants, doctors, magistrates and other liberal workers.

“Houphouet-Boigny [implemented] several policies to transform a middle class dependent on the state into an entrepreneur class. The state fostered the middle class to invest in cocoa or palm oil plantations as a way to build a middle class that would also be able to produce goods.”

The Felix Houphouet-Boigny stadium and the surrounding buildings in downtown Abidjan were built during his presidency when Côte d’Ivoire was a West African economic miracle that favoured the emergence of a middle class. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

Jean Coffie is a retired civil servant and an example of what Houphouet-Boigny dreamt of for the middle class. He is an entrepreneur who lives off his investments.

“My pension is not enough to live on. But I invested in hevea [rubber trees]. Income is random but I still earn more with that than from my government pension,” he tells IPS.

With this extra money, he is helping pay for his grandson’s studies in France. But Coffie is quick to point out that life for a middle class Ivorian is not what it used to be.

“At the time [during Houphouet-Boigny’s presidency], we had a lot of support to develop ourselves. University [education] and health care were more accessible. We might still be middle class but we lost all our privileges.”

Benie Kouadio agrees.

“The middle class has shrunk. Twenty years ago, teachers and doctors were middle class. Now, they can’t afford a new car. The Ivorian middle class lost its purchase power.”

A consumer class 

Purchase power is a key word. Accountants differ with economists in their understanding of the middle class; rather than analysing income, they look at disposable revenue.

Being middle class is about hitting a “sweet spot”, where people are able to spend money for things other than survival, says a report from accounting firm Ernst & Young.

Marcel Anné is the managing director of the supermarket chain Jour de Marché, which is situated in downtown Abidjan, the country’s economic capital. He has a good view of the emerging consumer class.

“Actually, this supermarket is less crowded than it used to be but this is more about changing consumer habits. This used to be [a] central [spot] for the middle class. Civil servants would buy things here and then go home,” he tells IPS.

The middle class here has become a more diverse, complex grouping that is not necessarily just comprised of civil servants anymore. The privatisation of companies, the need for qualified labour work in IT and on the new oil and gas fields have diversified this economic grouping.

So now Jour de Marché has opened “more, smaller supermarkets where the middle class live.”

And around Abidjan, the housing boom too suggests that there is a rising middle class.

Riviera Palmeraie, a former plantation where palm oil trees were cut down to make space for several small bungalows, has been one of the first major housing developments in Abidjan based on affordable units.

And now similar developments are slowly spreading across the city and beyond.

Ousmane Bah is the director of Alliance Cote d’Ivoire, one of the companies building middle class housing. His company will build the Akwaba Residence, one of many housing developments being constructed along Abidjan’s outskirts. Prices for homes start at 21,000 dollars for a two-room home and 36,100 dollars for four rooms.

“It targets mostly the young professionals starting up in life, as well as civil servants,” he tells IPS.

His project, like several others, is supported by the government and is part of an initiative to boost social housing for the middle class.

The government targets households with a revenue of less than 840 dollars per month. Buyers only need to provide a 10 percent cash deposit, and then benefit from a government-backed loan with low interest rates of 5.5 percent.

It addresses a difficult problem that seriously limits the growth of the Ivorian middle class: lack of credit.

“People are not used to buying flats here. They rent. Credit institutions are not used to provide housing loans. This is a big issue. We cannot simply build and expect people to buy,” says Bah.

Mohamed Diabaté is the first to agree.

“This is ridiculous. I wanted to get a credit for my house. It was easier to get credit to buy a goat for a Muslim holiday than having a real sustainable project. They did not even look at my file,” the 40-year-old IT specialist tells IPS.

He says even though he has a “comfortable revenue” and a steady job for 12 years, he could not obtain a home loan.

Benie Kouadio points out that “this is a clear limitation to the growth of the middle class. The middle class has no access to credit. Banks do not give loans for housing or cars any more.”

A girl playing in a United Nations Refugee Agency camp in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in February 2013. Refugees here fled their native Mali in March 2012 when Islamist groups took control of the north of the country. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
ABIDJAN, Mar 19 2014 (IPS)

In West Africa, the Malian and Ivorian political crises have resulted in the biggest number of refugees in the region. But brewing insecurity could mean that they will be unable to return home any time soon as armed groups remain a threat to West Africa.

In Nigeria, Islamist groups have targeted civilians, and are now hiding in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon. In Mali, even though the United Nations mission is providing military support, the Movement for Unity Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA) Islamists remain a threat and there have been a number of bomb explosions.“We have to have military escorts in this region to protect the mission from possible kidnappings.” -- Mohamed Bah, UNHCR

Côte d’Ivoire too has faced insecurity. While the country recovers from its post-electoral crisis that resulted in over 3,000 deaths between 2010 to 2011, refugees are slow to return from Ghana, Togo and Liberia.

There are now 93,738 refugees, mostly in Liberia, Togo and Ghana, and 24,000 Ivorian internally displaced persons (IDPs), according to the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

But the situation in the west of the country, in Bas-Sassandra, where most of the killings were perpetrated during the post-election crisis, remains fragile with the resumption of attacks during the last few weeks.

Ilmari Käihkö is a PhD student at the department for Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University, Sweden, who has conducted extensive field studies in eastern Liberia and investigated the Ivorian refugee areas there.

He said that Ivorian refugees were waiting for the results of the 2015 presidential elections before deciding whether to return home.

“Refugees believe that [current President Allassane ] Ouattara will lose. There might be a negative reaction if he wins,” he told IPS.

Côte d’Ivoire’s government has made a special effort to encourage the return of its refugees. It has sent several envoys to refugee communities to share the word that they will be welcomed when they return home.

This policy is working in part as several notorious supporters of former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo have come back to Côte d’Ivoire, including former Abidjan Port Authority director Marcel Gossio and over 1,300 ex-combatants.

Gbagbo, who is awaiting trial before the International Criminal Court, is accused of crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the 2010 to 2011 post-electoral crisis.

For Käihkö, the situation remains tense and the potential for more violence remains high as there are also land ownership issues in western Côte d’Ivoire that need to be addressed to ensure the safe return of the refugees.

The Ivorian refugees in Liberia are mostly from western Côte d’Ivoire, where some of the world’s biggest cacao producers originate. However, many have lived on the land without title deeds, adhering to the policy of “the land belongs to who takes care of it”. This has resulted in a conflict of ownership of land between the native Guérés and settlers to western Côte d’Ivoire.

According to Käihkö, the issues concerning land ownership are a key reason why many Ivorian refugees choose to remain in Liberia — many feel they don’t have anything to return to.

Nigeria too faces ongoing insecurity.

Already, violent attacks perpetrated by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northern Nigeria have forced 1,500 persons to flee in southern Niger’s Diffa Region and more than 4,000 to Cameroon over the last few months.

Boko Haram has targeted schools, hospitals and other institutions perceived as being from the West. And, as the number of refugees and IDPs increases, operations to provide aid for these people have been restricted because of security fears.

And it’s not just in Nigeria that the security situation has complicated humanitarian operations.

Across the region, aid workers have been abducted and attacked, and expat workers are becoming targets. On Feb. 8, an International Red Cross Committee convoy was attacked and five Malian employees were kidnapped by MUJWA.

As humanitarian agencies become targets they are increasingly forced to spend money on security for their staff that ideally should go to those in need.

“We have to have military escorts in this region to protect the mission from possible kidnappings,” Mohamed Bah, information officer at the Burkina Faso’s UNHCR office, told IPS.

Burkina Faso shares a border with Mali and although the security situation remains relatively stable, UNHCR says “strict security measures are in place in rural areas, particularly in Dori and Djibo, limiting the office’s access to its people of concern.”

This complicates both aid operations and repatriation.

“This insecurity limits access to repatriate in Mali. We need MINUSMA [U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali] support to go meet the repatriates. Several NGOs have limited their presence in return areas,” Olivier Beer, from the UNHCR’s Mali office, told IPS.

Young girls near a United Nations Refugee Agency camp in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in February 2013. Refugees here fled their native Mali in March 2012 when Islamist groups took control of the north of the country. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

In December 2012, few weeks before French forces started to bomb Islamist targets, there were as many as 500,000 Malian refugees and IDPs.

Now, as the stabilisation effort continues with MINUSMA slowly taking over military operations, numbers have reduced to 167,000 refugees in isolated camps in neighbouring Burkina Faso, Niger, Algeria and Mauritania. Within the country there are about 200,000 IDPs.

The UNHCR does not recommend a homecoming yet.

“For an organised UNHCR-backed return, there are some protection criterions that need to be met to ensure safety and dignity,” Beer said. A lack of housing and schooling, insecurity and no access to justice have all contributed to the delay in repatriating refugees.

However, it may take longer for the refugees to return home, even if the security issues are resolved. Several U.N. agencies and NGOs have warned that West Africa faces a grave food crisis.

More than 800,000 Malians, according to British NGO Oxfam International, currently need food assistance, and numbers are likely to reach even more critical proportions when food reserves will be empty when the lean season will start in mid-May.

Côte d’Ivoire refugees will also face a challenge. UNHCR Liberia bureau chief Khassim Diagne stated that if their food supply was not increased within two months more than 52,000 Ivorian refugees in Liberia would starve.

Supporters of the opposition Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), the party of former President Laurent Gbagbo pictured here at the party’s first major rally in Abidjan held from Feb 21 to 23, 2014. Courtesy: Marc-André Boisvert

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
ABIDJAN, Feb 25 2014 (IPS)

Armand Konan stood in front of the Palais des Sports, a stadium in Abidjan’s popular neighbourhood, Treichville, selling videos and speeches of former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo. “People need to remember what our president said…He is our president. And we want him back,” Konan told IPS.

While Gbagbo waits for his trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), his party, the Ivorian Popular Front (known by its French acronym FPI), is slowly recovering its political might in this West African nation.

Gbagbo is accused of crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the 2010 to 2011 post-electoral crisis. More than 3,000 people died in the violence that followed Gbagbo’s refusal to concede victory to current President Allassane Ouattara.

But as the country’s 2015 elections approach, the future of the FPI, one of the most important political forces in Côte d’Ivoire, hangs in the balance. While the next presidential polls will be held in October 2015, the FPI has not decided if it will run or continue its boycotting of elections – which it began doing during the 2012 legislative elections. And, so far, they have no official presidential candidate.

Inside the walls of the Palais des Sports, in the Ivorian economic capital of Abidjan, there were about 2,500 people who agreed with Konan. While it was not the first FPI rally held since the post-electoral crisis, this Feb. 21 to 23 convention was the first major political meeting to be held in Abidjan that was approved by authorities.

The ex-president might still be held at the Dutch prison complex in Scheveningen, but Gbagbo’s influence over his party remains strong.

“This convention is a tribute to [him]. We are determined to struggle for his liberation,” said Pascal Affi N’Guessan, the new president of the FPI, to much applause.

Affi N’Guessan urged the government “to invest in peace” and to ensure that “the peace and security conditions are there so every Ivorian will be ensured to live and work without fear for their lives.”

Affi N’Guessan, who still claims his party was victorious in the 2010 elections, predicted the FPI would soon take office again. “The FPI will soon be back in power through the only way [we] have been taught: a peaceful transition to democracy.”

Bakayoko-isation

Henriette Broh is a hardliner who refuses any alternative to Koudou, as many here fondly call Gbagbo. She is certain that by the time the 2015 elections come around, Gbagbo will be free and she will be able to vote for him again.

“Laurent Gbagbo will be liberated soon. This is what god wants. We know it. The ICC has no proof. And he will come back to clean the mess that was [made by] Ouattara. They are robbers! They stole the elections. And now they steal the money,” the 50-year-old told IPS.

Like many Ivorians, she accuses the government of “kidnapping” the economy and favouring its own group of supporters at every level of the administration. Locals have even created a word for this: “Bakayoko-isation” — it is a grouping of the last names of several figures around Ouattara including, the current Minister of Interior Hamed Bakayoko, and others who have the same surname but are not from the same family.

“The almost 10 percent growth rate? No Ivorian has seen [the benefits of] this. The cost of living is higher than ever. The government is lying,” said Anselme, another militant FPI supporter, who refused to give his last name as he feared reprisals.

A national roundtable?

Since last August, President Ouattara has made several attempts to open dialogue with the FPI. The opposition leaders have met the government on several occasions and there have been constant rumours – which were never acknowledged – that a national coalition government will be formed.

But it will take more than talks for FPI supporters to forget the hardships they experienced over the last few years.

Affi N’Guessan was arrested when Gbagbo’s regime collapsed in April 2011. He was liberated on Aug. 6, 2013. A hundred other FPI leaders, who were present at the convention, were also imprisoned and then released on bail or went to exile.

Several FPI supporters are still imprisoned, while others have had their assets frozen and claim to have been illegally evicted from their homes.

On Sunday, Feb. 23, the FPI closed the convention with a popular rally in an historic place for the FPI, the Ficgayo Square in Yopougon — a neighbourhood that has been very supportive of Gbagbo.

Pascal Affi N’Guessan, the new president of the opposition Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), the party of former President Laurent Gbagbo pictured here at the party’s first major rally in Abidjan held from Feb 21 to 23, 2014. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

Affi N’Guessan asked for “real justice”.

“For an effective, sincere and frank reconciliation, we have to move away from the victor’s justice. We have to free the ones still in prison, because they are there in the name of this victor’s justice,” Affi N’Guessan said.

But while the FPI was reconnecting with its supporters, in a pro-Ouattara neighbourhood the Collective of the Ivory Coast Victims was protesting against the liberation of post-electoral criminals and the “political interference in the justice system.”

Doudou Diene, United Nations independent expert on human rights, who visited Côte d’Ivoire last week, seemed to agree and called for the prosecution of perpetrators.

“There is considerable progress made, but more needs to be done in terms of political dialogue,” Diene said.

At a bus stop in central Abidjan, Awa Konate, a 25-year-old law student, agreed with Diene’s analysis that no matter the outcome, the FPI needs to get involved in the political process to avoid another violent crises.

“I did not vote for the FPI. But almost half of Ivorians voted for them. You have to respect that. We are tired of crises.

“The government and Gbagbo now need to talk. It is not for the people to die for politicians. And we need to make sure that this will never happen again. We have yet to find the balance between impunity and letting the FPI become a constructive opposition.”

Aminata Diarra holds up a picture of her brother Malamine, a Red Beret who disappeared in early May 2012. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
BAMAKO, Feb 13 2014 (IPS)

Aminata Diarra last saw her brother, Malamine, a member of the Malian Red Berets, special forces loyal to ousted president Amadou Toumani Toure, alive on national television almost two years ago.

It was in May 2012, not long after after General Amadou Haya Sanogo, then a Captain, had seized control of the country’s capital Bamako. The military, which suffered several humiliating defeats against Tuareg rebels in the country’s north, initiated the mutiny against the government in their bid for more resources to fight the uprising in northern Mali."We know our relatives have been tortured and killed. We found each other in pain. We will fight for justice." -- Bintou Maiga Sagara, mother of missing Red Beret, Dokale

It was only five days after the coup that Malians learned the name of the junta leader. Sanogo gained instant popularity among a population that saw the democratically-elected government as corrupt. Small Chinese motorcycles, a very popular means of transportation in Bamako, were decorated with stickers of the new leader.

“He offered us hope. But now we know that he was there to enrich himself,” Oumar Sanogo tells IPS while drinking tea with friends at the corner of a street, in the shade of a newspaper stand.

For a few weeks, Sanogo was head of state until international pressure forced him to step down. Constitutional order and a transitional government, headed by the president of the National Assembly, Dioncounda Traore, were then established.

But this was not before hostilities between the Red Berets and Sanogo’s Green Berets resulted in the exchange of fire in April 2012 in what has been dubbed a “counter-coup”.

The Missing 21 Red Berets

Stories about who started the hostilities remain unclear, but several Red Berets were killed and arrested. Diarra’s brother was one of 21 Red Berets who disappeared after the counter-coup failed.

The last time the families of these 21 Red Berets saw them alive was on national television, soon after their arrest at Sanogo’s headquarters, the Kati military base just outside Bamako.

“I went on May 2^nd [2012] to Kati to see if my brother was alive. I went back every day. I received threats. I kept going. But we never had news,” Diarra tells IPS.

She explains that, while some succeeded in finding their missing family members after the “counter-coup”, all communication about the soldiers stopped around April that year.

While this West African nation is slowly moving on from the 2012 military coup, and the occupation of its north by Islamic extremists – the country held elections here in July 2013 – families of the military victims are stilling awaiting justice for what is considered to be the other Malian crisis.

Sanogo was arrested and charged for murder and kidnapping in November 2013. And soon after his arrest a mass grave containing 21 bodies was discovered a few kilometres from his Kati military base. Many believe that these are the bodies of the 21 missing Red Berets.

It is hoped that any day now the DNA results of the soldiers will be made public.

“We are patiently waiting for results. Then, justice will be able to act,” says Diarra, who is also a jurist.

Bintou Maiga Sagara is also watching the situation closely. Her son, Dokale, was among the ones that disappeared.

“I am relieved that they discovered the [bodies],” she tells IPS, showing a picture of her son in uniform.

Sagara has faith that justice will be done.

“Mali is not a violent country. We know our relatives have been tortured and killed. We found each other in pain. We will fight for justice,” she says.

While human rights violations and violence committed by the army have yet to be investigated in the north, the think tank International Crisis Group said in a January  report that there is a need for reform in the military as well as “guaranteeing the republican character of an army that will not engage itself into politics.”

But Moctar Mariko, president of the Malian Association of Human Rights, believes it is important to first shed light on the several episodes of violence before moving forward.

“Mali has a long tradition of impunity, especially within the army. It is time to move away from that,” Mariko tells IPS.

Justice for All

But Sanogo and his followers are not just accused of killing Red Berets. In September 2012, a mutiny was quenched when several of Sanogo’s former supporters revolted against him.

Thirty Green Berets were arrested and then released, but at least eight men have disappeared.

Three bodies were found a month later in October 2012. But the five other men are still missing and their families are still waiting for answers to see if their brothers, sons and husbands are alive.

Nantoume Fatoumata Doumbia’s brother, Lassine Keita, disappeared while drinking in a bar in Kati in September 2012. His body was found a few days later.

“I knew what happened. The day after the mutiny, Sanogo said that he will kill all the ones that rose up [against him],” she tells IPS calmly.

Fanta Keita still does not know what happened to her husband, Ibrahim Doumbia.

“We want to know the truth. We want to know if they are alive or not. It is impossible to keep living that way,” she tells IPS.

People washing clothes on the shore of the Niger River in Mali’s capital, Bamako. Mali’s recent conflict destroyed the economy and created pressure on households. But the economy is slowly improving. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
BAMAKO, Feb 6 2014 (IPS)

Under the harsh Sunday afternoon sun, Daouda Dicko washes his client’s clothes on the shore of the Niger River, which runs through Mali’s capital, Bamako. “I started doing this to survive two years ago. Now, I am used to it and I don’t mind the extra money it brings,” Dicko, who also works as a gardener, tells IPS.

Dicko struggled to feed his family during Mali’s political crisis in March 2012 when Tuareg rebels and then Islamists took control of the country’s north, which comprises almost two-thirds of this West African nation. But military intervention from France liberated the north in January 2013 and led to elections here in July that year. “The economy is not in shambles. It is dead.” -- member of parliament Aicha Belco Maiga

The conflict destroyed Mali’s economy and created pressure on households. But the country’s economy is slowly showing signs of improvement.

Binetou Diarra arranges plump tomatoes on her wooden stall in the Quartier du Fleuve, a market in Bamako.

“Prices increased a lot a year ago. But now they are back to almost normal,” 37-year-old Diarra, who is wearing a T-shirt from last year’s presidential campaign, tells IPS.

Cooking oil, which had risen to a high of 1,200 CFA (2.47 dollars) in September 2012, has now come down to 850 CFA (1.75 dollars). But in Bamako, it is not only in consumers’ pockets where one can find visible signs of economic recovery.

Hotels, which were all closed between 2012 to 2013, have now reopened. However, they are no longer filled with the 250,000 tourists whom, according to the Mali Tourism Office, would flock to the country back in 2009.

The Hotel de l’Amitié, one of the tallest buildings in the capital, has now become the seat of the United Nations mission here. Other hotels are filled with staff from NGOs and from other missions to help get Mali back on track. Restaurants and business are also busy with the return of expatriates.

Fatoumata Coulibaly and her friends have stalls close to several expatriate neighbourhoods. And the return of the expats has had a direct effect in their wallets. “There is more money coming in. It is not easy to survive, but we are positive. We know the worst is behind. Inshallah,” Coulibaly tells IPS.

Heading Towards Growth

In January, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said that Mali’s GDP growth will increase by 6.6 percent in 2014, which is a higher growth than the 5.7 percent predicted  a couple of months earlier.

Lagarde told the press in Mali that the country now has to move from an economic crisis to recovery. “We now have to strengthen economic fundamentals to increase growth, job creation and to decrease poverty.”

But it will be a challenge.

When sanctions were imposed here after the 2012 coup, the country lost the 30 percent of its 3.5-billion-dollar budget that was foreign-aid dependent.

The government’s centralised offices in the Cité Administrative, a Sahelian-inspired complex on the Niger River’s shore, became a phantom district for over a year because of the money shortage.

“We have been totally paralysed during the crisis. I received my salary, but it was late. And we had no budget to pursue operations. But now things are back to normal. We are paid and we have the tools to work,” Fofana Daouda, a civil servant from the ministry of family, tells IPS.

The North Remains in Economic Crisis

But while the country’s capital is experiencing a slow recovery, Mali’s north still lacks economic opportunities and many are still living in extreme poverty, says Dedeou Traore, a member of parliament for the northern region of Niafunke.

“The economy is bad,” Traore tells IPS. Northerners, whose livelihoods were largely dependent on subsistence agriculture, have lost everything.

“In Niafunké, the Prefect is back, but the Justice and other state institutions [have not returned]. People feel that they are abandoned,” Traore says.

In May 2013, international donors offered almost 3.5 billion dollars to reconstruct Mali. But this week donors are meeting in Brussels as only half of the funds have been received.

Meanwhile, Oxfam International has called for better governance and the better distribution of state resources, in a report released on Feb. 5.

The report denounces “the combined impact of weak decentralisation, corruption, and a lack of transparency regarding budget allocation and the distribution of aid has led to a widely-held belief that the country’s citizens are not receiving their fair share from the government.”

“The situation in northern Mali remains fragile. Donors must not forget that more than 800,000 people need immediate food assistance due to the impact of conflict, weak harvests, and poor rains.  Mali needs a comprehensive response to the many challenges it faces,” says Mohamed L. Coulibaly, country director for Oxfam International in Mali.

Aicha Belco Maiga is a member of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s Rally for Mali party, which has the majority seats in parliament. She represents the region of Tessalit, one of the most remote and arid places in Mali near the Algerian border.

“In Tessalit, all economic activities have stopped. The town is empty. People who stayed had to sell their belongings for food. There is nothing to eat. There is no functioning administration. It is so bad that you see more Algerian dinars being exchanged than CFA Francs [Mali’s currency],” she tells IPS.

“This population needs our help. The economy is not in shambles. It is dead.”

Agaichetou Toure fled Gao in March 2012 for Bamako. She is still waiting to return home. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
BAMAKO, Jan 31 2014 (IPS)

In her traditional orange headdress, Agaichetou Toure sits quietly in a waiting room in Kalaban-Koura, a popular neighbourhood on the outskirts of Mali’s capital Bamako. 

It’s taken Toure almost two years to register as an internally displaced person (IDP) because until now she did not know that centres for this existed or that they provided aid for people like her. It was while running errands that she heard a crowd speaking about a new centre that had opened. So she came.Many IDPs fear returning ... Protection for locals is minimal. Basically, for now, populations are left by themselves." -- Almahady Cisse from Cri de Coeur

Toure fled Gao, the capital of Mali’s south-eastern Gao Region, the day after Islamists entered and took control of the city in March 2012. Along with her three children, she boarded a canoe and crossed the Niger River as the sound of rifle fire rung out in the background.

Her two older children crossed into neighbouring Niger and took refuge with an aunt. Toure and her eight-year-old daughter boarded a bus and travelled for four days to reach Bamako, about 1,200 kilometres south of Gao, to take refuge with her brother.

Difficult Living Conditions

Almost two years later, their living conditions remain difficult as they stay with Toure’s brother, his two wives and eight children in his two-bedroom home. The sleeping arrangements aren’t any better. Each night, depending on which wife her brother sleeps with, Toure has to sleep in a different bedroom.

“I am stuck in Bamako. I don’t like it. But I have to [stay],” says the 42-year-old who is one of eight women waiting to be registered at this IDP centre. Toure’s home city of Gao was targeted by rocket attacks last week.

It has been a year since this West African nation’s government took back control of its north, and six months after peaceful elections were held here.

In January 2012, a Tuareg rebellion triggered a series of events that lead to the fall of almost two-thirds of Mali’s territory. The Tuareg rebels were soon ousted by Islamist movements, several of which are linked to Al Qaeda. But military intervention from French, and later African, troops, liberated the north in January 2013 and led to elections here in July of that year.

But hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and refugees have still not returned to their homes.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Mali says that, as of January, there are 217,811 displaced persons, mostly in the southern part of the country and in Bamako. It is a reduction from the 353,455 IDPs recorded in June 2013. In addition, about 167,000 refugees remain in camps in neighbouring countries.

In a spartan, but brand new office in Kalaban-Koura, Mahamane Allassa Assofaré sees about 20 IDPs a day who wish to be registered. This office is one of the five centres run by the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) in collaboration with the IOM.

Assofaré documents the story of each IDP who comes through the doors. It’s the first step in helping them receive aid, basic services, professional training, cash transfers and maternal care.

“They face a lot of problems. The cost of living is much more expensive in Bamako than where they are from. There are issues with health, food, housing,” Assofaré tells IPS while handing a questionnaire to an IDP.

IOM estimates that around 57 percent of the 353,455 IDPs registered in June 2013 have now returned to their homes, 78 percent of whom say that the improved security situation motivated their return.

Niamoye Alidji is an IDP whom IPS met two years ago. She was one of the first people to return to her home in Timbuktu, a town on the list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) world heritage sites, in northern Mali. And she is happy that she did.

“People are slowly coming back. Shops are reopening. School is starting. In Timbuktu, things are getting much better. We are safe,” she tells IPS over the phone.

There’s Nothing To Go Back To

If Timbuktu has been pacified, several regions are far from secure. The city of Gao was targeted by rocket attacks last week. This week, it was the turn of Kidal, a city in northern Mali. In those areas, the security situation still remains fragile.

“Our position is that we do not encourage massive returns,” Olivier Beer, from the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR), tells IPS. “Safety does not explain it all.”

He says that the humanitarian conditions of the refugees and the absence of state facilities are reasons not to support mass repatriation.

Almahady Cisse from Cri de Coeur, a Malian collective that was created to support the victims of the humanitarian crisis in the north, agrees.

“There is a lack of accompaniment measures. Many IDPs fear returning, especially civil servants, which delays state support. Few schools have reopened. There are still limited health facilities. Protection for locals is minimal. Basically, for now, populations are left by themselves,” Cisse tells IPS.

Abdoulaye Haidara, 50, from a village close to Bourem, a town in Goa Region, has been living in Bamako for almost two years. He is reluctant to return home.

“I talk to my family in Bourem. It seems better. I would like to go back, but there is nothing left there. Everything I had has disappeared. And I have no way of feeding my four kids there. It serves no purpose to go back,” he tells IPS.

Assofané says that because of the lack of services and facilities in the north, many IDPs who went home after the violence, are returning to Bamako.

“They lost everything in the pillage, and the economy is quite bad,” explains Assofané.

And there remains a stream of newly displaced IDPs moving to Mali’s south.

Situation is Fragile 

The IDP situation here is fragile.

“We have done an in-depth investigation and the IDP situation has lead to a slow precariousness of host families,” Nicolas Robe, country director for ACTED, tells IPS.

Several IDPs have moved in with their extended families, burdening many of these households. The situation is becoming unbearable for some and several households have reached out for aid.

The IOM estimates that many IDPs will need food assistance to return home. About 800,000 people need immediate food assistance and about three million of the country’s 14.8 million people are at risk of lacking food in the next three months.

It is no wonder that Cisse from Cri de Coeur believes it is a good thing that IDPs are not forced to return home.

“A return should not be premature. Someone that has lost everything needs support. They need time to organise for the best return possible. And so far, we are still in this process.”

Dozos are a traditional hunter brotherhood found in several West African countries. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
DUÉKOUÉ, Dec 22 2013 (IPS)

In Cote d’Ivoire, traditional hunters known as dozos are accused of human rights abuses and extortion. But in several areas, they also remain the sole guarantor of local safety.

Marie Doh looks closely at a posse of three young men wearing traditional gear, standing at a checkpoint.

“With their clothes too wide for their skinny bodies, they look a bit comical,” Doh says. But she is not laughing. Each man holds an old rifle in his hands.

“They are there for our protection, they say. But they are mostly there to pick up the pennies we can spare them.” Doh claims that she is not “that much” afraid of them, but still gives them 100 CFA (about 20 cents) “several times” a month.

The three men are dozos, a traditional hunter brotherhood that has existed in several West African countries for centuries. They recruit beyond ethnic and religious lines, although most are Malinke and Muslim.

A report published last week by the U.N. mission in Cote d’Ivoire, UNOCI, claims that at least 228 people have been killed, 164 injured and 162 illegally arrested and detained by dozos in several regions of the country between March 2009 and May 2013. It says that 274 confirmed cases of looting, fire and extortion have been committed by dozos.

In Duékoué, a town in the southwestern department of the same name, 12 dozos are seated in the courtyard of an unfinished building. Wearing street clothes, they look more like a social club than a militia.

“It is a not a job we have chosen. It is a duty,” says Dembele Balla, Duékoué’s dozo chief. “I am a dozo since I was a little kid. I was initiated the traditional way.”

Each dozo must pass through a ritual initiation. They are believed to have mystic powers derived from amulets.

“In 2002, we got a call from the prefect,” he says. At the time, an armed uprising of disaffected soldiers had devolved into a civil war that split the country in two.

Between 2002 and 2007, Duékoué was in the middle of the “zone de confiance”, a no man’s land between Forces Nouvelles rebels controlling the North and the government-controlled South.

For years, lawlessness reigned here. Since the 2010-11 post-electoral crisis, dozos have informally contributed to military operations to secure the area. The chief says there are now 2,300 dozos in the Duékoué region.

On his little motorcycle, Souleymane Fofana, the dozos’ security chief, takes IPS on a patrol of Duékoué. “Before we came, when people were going to the fields, they were turned into dead bodies,” he says.

Farmer Yacouba Dosso warmly greets Fofana. “We are happy with dozos patrolling. They are our sole protectors,” says the cocoa grower.

He explains that there are many robbers, especially during the cocoa harvests as planters come back home with huge sums of money that can reach one million CFAS (around 2,000 dollars). Police and military do not patrol the area.

On the way, several checkpoints have been set up by dozos: a branch blocking the small muddy path, a shelter covered with palm branches, a smoking fire with food cooking.

Local dozos lead several patrols during the night. “We do not travel with big pick-ups. We are somewhat invisible, so criminals do not see us coming,” Fofana says. “We are very efficient.”

Ethnic tensions

Fofana stops his bike in front of a house a few metres from the site of the former Nahibly refugee camp. “This is where five people got killed. Criminals murdered them,” he says.

On Jul. 20, 2012, an angry mob estimated at 1000-strong, allegedly led by dozos and members of the national army, attacked the camp. Among the 2,500 inhabitants, mostly ethnic Gueres and supporters of former president Laurent Gbagbo, at least 14 were killed and hundreds more injured.

Dozos are not a neutral self-defence group in this region plagued with ethnic tensions. Ivory Coast’s cocoa sector under President Felix Houphouet Boigny – who used to say the land belongs to whoever cultivates it – has attracted Ivoirians from other regions, known as allogenes, as well as foreign workers.

This led to several clashes in the last decade with native Guerzes, who say they own the land, and migrants who often have paid for the land but have no clear property titles.

In this context, dozos are perceived to protect foreigners and allogenes against disenfranchised, unemployed Guerze youth, who claim their ancestors’ land, and pro-Gbagbo militias who had terrorised the local population.

Fofana denies this. “We are not into politics. We just protect communities against bandits,” he claims.

“Harassing, killing and hurting people, this is against dozo ethics. A dozo does not kill.” He says human right violations are committed by fake dozos.

Eugene Nindorera, head of the human rights division at ONUCI, agrees. “There are true and fake dozos. There are people dressing up like dozos and taking up a rifle, with values that are not traditional dozo values.”

Still, he believes all the militias should be demobilised and human right violations punished.

The government has adopted measures to demobilise and disarm dozos, as well as to redeploy security forces in the region. But the U.N. representative is sceptical.

“There is a gap between what is said and what is done. It is a question of political will. The government wants now to demobilise dozos, but it still not has enough policemen and military to do so,” Nindorera says.

“Once, gendarmes arrested a dozo. A few hours later, 40 dozos showed up with rifles at the gendarmerie. There is a power relation here that remains to be addressed,” he concludes.

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s economic centre, is the scene of major infrastructure development. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, Nov 18 2013 (IPS)

All over the Ivorian economic capital, Abidjan, large cranes, involved in the construction of new buildings and highways, are dotted across the city skyline.

Soon this city, which is split in two by a lagoon, will have a second port terminal, a fourth bridge and several overpasses and other major infrastructure that are expected to metamorphose Abidjan’s landscape. Business is clearly improving in this West African nation.

Côte d’Ivoire’s booming business successes have been highlighted by the World Bank “Doing Business 2014” report, where its economy was ranked 20th for having made the most significant improvement in its business environment since 2005.

In times of a global economic downturn, Côte d’Ivoire is a rare case. Not only does the country have a positive GDP growth for 2012, but the numbers exceed expectations at 9,8 percent rather than the 8,1 percent forecast by the International Monetary Fund.

But while Côte d’Ivoire’s growth may be impressive the world over, its population of about 19.8 million is impatient to see these economic gains transform their lives for the better.

Marius Comoe, president of the Federation of Consumer Associations of Ivory Coast (FACACI), is convinced that things are getting worse.

“Purchasing power has diminished. Basic food and gas prices have increased substantially,” he told IPS.

At the Carena market in downtown Abidjan, women complain about the increasing cost of life.

“Ah, it is so expensive. Prices have increased a lot in the last two years. I really have difficulty [making] ends meet. Vegetable prices have increased, but meat and oil are becoming incredibly expensive,” Alice Boue told IPS while selecting a few vegetables to purchase.

Martine Broue, a trader at the Carena market in downtown Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, says that while the cost of other goods have gone up, her vegetables prices have not. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

But vegetable seller Martine Broue argued that while the cost of other goods have gone up, her vegetables prices have not. Prices of vegetables are difficult to track because of the constant fluctuations. The National Institute of Statistics, known by its French acronym, INS, estimates that vegetable prices have increased about 10 percent from October 2012 to October 2013.

In addition, cooking oil has almost doubled in price from 1.30 dollars in 2010 to 2.4 dollars in 2013. Meat, which sold for about four dollars a kilogramme (kg) in January 2013 currently costs about 4,6 dollars a kg in some areas. Rice, however, has maintained a steady price over the last year at about 65 cents per kg, according the Famine Early Warning Systems Network.

“Spending power is not only about staple goods. Electricity is now double the cost of what it was under [former President Laurent] Gbagbo and affordable accommodation is impossible to find,” explained Comoe. INS estimates that the total cost of energy has increased 6,3 percent in the last year.

And these price hikes have also affected services.

“Healthcare is two to three times more expensive than it was three years ago,” said Comoe. The cost of education has increased by 25,3 percent for high school and 92,6 percent for university fees. “Several kids cannot go to school because their parents do not have the money to pay for school fees,” Comoe added.

Dr. José Coffie N’Guessan, economist and director of research at the Ivorian Centre of Economic and Social Research, explained the contradiction in the country’s rapid economic growth and the lack of improvement for people.

“This huge growth rate is not extraordinary, considering that the economy has contracted roughly five percent in the years prior to 2012,” he told IPS. Côte d’Ivoire has faced several crises since the 1999 coup d’état and most recently the 2010 to 2011 post-electoral crisis that resulted in over 3,000 deaths.

“We are catching up with the past. [The economic growth] will be remarkable if we are able to maintain those numbers for two to three years,” N’Guessan said, explaining that the majority of the country’s growth was largely due to the necessary infrastructure investments currently being made by the government, which were postponed since the country’s post-electoral crisis.

N’Guessan is uncertain whether this growth will reduce unemployment, pointing out “this is not automatic.”

According to the General Confederation of Companies of Côte d’Ivoire, last year about five million Ivoirians were unemployed, with the unemployment rate among 15- to 35-year-olds as high as 60 percent.

“Growth will be stimulated by building new infrastructure, but it might not translate into jobs the same way that investments made in factories [do]. So far, Ivoirians do not feel that unemployment is going down,” N’Guessan said.

He added that foreign investors “tended to be interested in sectors that do not create a lot of jobs, especially natural resources. To create jobs, we have to invest in agriculture, agro-industries and the tertiary sector.”

“The population has yet to gain from this growth. The impact is never immediate. It will take a certain time. We have to be patient. Government has decided to reach high to bring wealth fast,” N’Guessan said.

He said that in order for the government to build a sustainable growth, it had to invest “in something else other than ostentatious infrastructures.”

“We need to invest in human capital. We are at a crossroad. And it is important to not miss it.”

Many Ivoirians fled the country’s violence in 2011. It was estimated that 100,000 people fled to neighbouring Liberia. Pictured here is a family who fled to Butuo, Liberia, in this photo dated 2011. Credit: Jessica McDiarmid/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, Oct 31 2013 (IPS)

“We are sad. We want our president back,” Yao Amandine told IPS from a street corner in the Ivorian economic metropolis, Abidjan, after the International Criminal Court ruled against granting former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo a conditional release on Tuesday. 

Gbagbo is accused of crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the 2010 to 2011 post-electoral crisis. More than 3,000 people died in the violence that followed Gbagbo’s refusal to concede victory to Allassane Ouattara, who was internationally recognised as the winner of the election.

But in June, the ICC said that the case against Gbagbo was not strong enough and asked chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to conduct further investigations and submit more evidence. The defence used the delay to ask for Gbagbo’s conditional release.

For weeks Gbagbo’s supporters in Côte d’Ivoire waited expectantly for his release. On the newsstand behind Amandine, newspaper headlines read: “Gbagbo packs his luggage” and “Gbagbo will be back soon.” But on Oct. 29, when news broke from The Hague that the former president would remain in detention pending a possible trial, many of his supporters become deflated.

“They have stolen our president from us, and they don’t want to give him back. [The prosecutor Fatou] Bensouda doesn’t have any proof. They have to release him,” Broue Jean told IPS as he stood next to Amandine.

In this West African nation the ICC proceedings have been greeted with a mix of incomprehension and frustration.

“It’s true that people do not understand what is happening,” Ali Ouattara, president of the Ivorian Coalition for the ICC, told IPS. “People need to understand that [these] decisions follow long-term proceedings in the court. They do not see the motives behind the decisions.”

He admitted that the ICC needed to provide constant communication with Ivoirians. However, he said he still believed that the international court offered the best opportunity for Ivoirians to achieve justice.

Here in Côte d’Ivoire, far from the ICC proceedings, justice seems to have been postponed for many.

Human rights groups continue to call for the end of the “selective justice” that is being meted out by local courts. In a report released in April titled “Turning Rhetoric Into Reality: Accountability for Serious International Crimes in Côte d’Ivoire,” Human Right Watch (HRW) said the government’s efforts to ensure justice for victims of the violence was uneven.

Since the crisis, more than 130 pro-Gbagbo supporters have faced trial, while only one Allassane Ouattara supporter was arrested and prosecuted.

Right groups say that this has led to a stalemate in the reconciliation process here. Amnesty International, HRW and the International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR) have demanded that justice be blind and called for Allassane Ouattara’s supporters to be also held responsible for their crimes.

But it seems that Gbagbo will be the first and possibly the sole Ivorian to be transferred to The Hague.

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s economic centre, was the scene of violent confrontations during the 2010 to 2011 post-electoral crisis between supporters of former President Laurent Gbagbo and current President Allassane Ouattara. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

The ICC has also issued a warrant of arrest for Gbagbo’s wife and former First Lady Simone Gbagbo for charges related to her alleged involvement in the violence following the December 2010 election. But the Ivorian government refused to transfer her, arguing instead that it was now capable of prosecuting its own nationals.

The government is also yet to make a decision on another arrest warrant issued by the ICC.

On Sept. 23, Ivorian Minister of Justice Gnenema Coulibaly said that the ICC had provided a sealed arrest warrant for Charles Ble Goude, the former leader of the Young Patriots, a pro-Gbagbo, quasi-militia group. He is accused of crimes against humanity and rape that occurred during the violence from December 2010 to April 2011.

Last week, Ble Goude’s Ivorian legal team demanded that the government put him on trial in Côte d’Ivoire.

“We think Ivorian courts are capable,” Ble Goude’s lawyer Kouadio N’Dry Claver said during a press conference. “We ask that the government take the same courageous and salutary decision [as it did with former First Lady Simone] Gbagbo’s case.”

Whatever the government’s decision on Ble Goude’s transfer, it has already announced the impending closure of the bodies set up to deal with the post-electoral violence.

Government spokesperson Bruno Koné said last week that the mandate of the Special Investigation Cell, which was set up in 2011 to investigate crimes during the violence, would not be renewed once it ended this December. He said the country’s police services and courts would be able to take on the role.

“The unit [was] set up at a particular moment. Now, the situation is back to normal. There is no question about maintaining it,” Koné said. Since April, many of the unit’s judges and investigators have been transferred to other departments.

But Patrick Baudouin, a lawyer for IFHR, said during a press conference on Oct. 22 that the government had not provided “a logical argument about why they should stop the unit’s activities.”

The mandate of the Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was also set up two years ago, will also not be renewed when it ends. And IFHR is concerned that post-electoral crimes will remain unpunished. “A lot needs to be done on [President Allassane] Ouattara’s side. Ivory Coast has [experienced] too much suffering [to] proclaim impunity in all camps,” said Baudouin.

But president of the Collective of Victims in Ivory Coast, Issiaka Diaby, has faith in the system.

“Justice takes time,” he told IPS.

“I think that the refusal to grant conditional release to Laurent Gbagbo is a way to guarantee social peace and cohesion while justice is being rendered. We need this. Justice needs to be [served] not only for the 2010 to 2011 post-electoral crisis, but also for earlier events,” Diaby said.

A 2002 to 2007 civil war split the country in two as the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast attacked forces loyal to Gbagbo and took control of the north. But according to the April HRW report, “from 2003 onwards, political and military leaders on both sides implicated in overseeing atrocities retained their positions with complete impunity.”

“We have to end an entire decade of impunity. Unfortunately, we cannot request too much for now. If the minister says that we do not need the Special Investigative [Cell] anymore, great. We will follow on that. But we will maintain our vigilance to ensure that courts and investigators will really follow on,” Diaby said.

Ouedrogo Boureila, who has been living in Mount Peko since 2006, fled the area when the security forces entered the area and began registering all inhabitants of the national park. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
DIX-HUIT MONTAGNES REGION, Côte d’Ivoire, Jul 9 2013 (IPS)

As the Côte d’Ivoire government clears its protected forests of illegal occupiers, particularly in the Dix-Huit Montagnes region, environmentalists say that this crucial move might lead to conflict in an already tense region.

“I am in favour of evictions, but it should not be brutal. These are fragile populations,” Egnankou Wadja Mathieu, professor at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny University’s Department of Botany and director of the NGO SOS Foret, told IPS.

In June, about 25,000 dwellers were violently evicted from the Niegre Forest in the Dix-Huit Montagnes region to the west of the country. Their settlements were destroyed with bulldozers.

Such an aggressive operation was not possible in Mount Peko National Park, which lies 200 km north of Niegre. Mount Peko used to form a chain of mountains covered with luxuriant green forests. Over the last 20 years, however, illegal settlers – the vast majority of whom are non-Ivorian West African citizens – have cut down trees to grow cocoa, destroying almost 70 percent of the 34,000 hectares of protected forest.

Illegal cocoa growers were lucky that this is an isolated reserve with narrow mud tracks that do not allow for heavy machinery or bulldozers.

Still, an operation launched on May 18 shocked some inhabitants of Mount Peko. When Emmanuel Ouedrogo saw Ivorian security forces approaching, he fled. “We had to leave. We do not have the strength to fight back.” The Burkinabe is worried about his future. He already lost some of the crops in its field. “I will lose everything. I do not know where to go next,” he told IPS, his voice shaky.

Ouedrogo Boureila, who has been living in Mount Peko since 2006, fled to Guézon-Tahouaké, a nearby village. “There was no violence when they launched operations. I left Mount Peko voluntarily,” he told IPS, adding that he will not return just yet.

A number of natural forests have been degraded over the course of the years in this West African nation. According to the European Union, more than 75 percent of all Ivorian forests have now disappeared.

“All classified forests will be rid of illegals. We have to stop the desert below the desert,” stated Mathieu Babaud Darret, Minister of Water and Forests, during a press conference on Jun. 13 to launch the voluntary partnership agreement between the EU and Côte d’Ivoire to stop illegal logging.

“Deforestation has a great impact. The forests create a microclimate that allows cocoa to grow. If we cut the forests, cocoa production will fall. And this will also affect fauna, flora, and climate change,” said Mathieu. Cocoa contributes to 10 percent of the country’s GDP and 40 percent of its foreign exchange earnings.

Mathieu said everyone, from forest rangers to local communities, was responsible for the degradation of the country’s forests.

But the situation in Mount Peko is a complicated one. The security forces were largely in the national park to arrest militia leader Amade Oueremi for his role in the country’s 2010–2011 post-election violence. More than 3,000 people died in Côte d’Ivoire after former President Laurent Gbagbo refuse to concede victory to Alassane Ouattara and relinquish power after a contested poll in November 2010.

Oueremi was said to have used the area as a base for more than 20 years and his heavily-armed lieutenants are still in the forest. Many believe that their expulsion could lead to more violence.

The Authority for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (ADDR), a governmental agency, is now registering all inhabitants of Mount Peko and disarming the militiamen among them. The government has told illegal forest dwellers that they can remain in the forest until the completion of this three-month registration operation, which will ultimately result in their relocation.

“The situation is under control. The majority of settlers went back to Mount Peko,” Gbane Mahama, the Prefect of Bangolo, who is regarded as the highest authority of the region, told IPS. “We need to work in cooperation with populations to find a sustainable solution.”

Retired Colonel-Major Patrice Kouassi, who supervised the ADDR operation, said that evictions needed to be carefully planned to avoid a crisis. “Relocating those people is a serious challenge. It will be difficult to evacuate people who have been living there for over 10 years and have economic interests.”

There is no census on how many people will have to be relocated from Mount Peko, but local officials believe there are about 20,000 people living in the national park, which has been a protected area since 1968.

“There is no land for agriculture in the region. This is why they settle in the forest,” explained Mathieu. The problem of lack of land and property titles has led to several violent clashes between native ethnic groups and foreign settlers who came from neighbouring countries to farm cocoa.

Robert Kouhi Dje, the traditional chief of Guézon-Tahouaké fears the potential for violence. “The village feels insecure,” he told IPS. And the heavy military presence does not reassure him. Among the settlers are several militias who were active during violent conflicts here over the last decade, notably an attack against the western city of Duekoue where more than 300 were killed during the post-electoral crisis.

Signs of rising tension are already appearing. A recent increase in road robbery and crime has led some locals to blame the Mount Peko squatters, but there is little proof so the blame game between the local communities and foreign settlers continues.

“We have to be careful not to blame blindly. We have no idea how many men carry weapons. But we cannot live with a state within the state. It is time to act sensibly now. For our future.”

Some 8,000 Talibés, which means students of an Islamic school, are still begging on Dakar’s street corners. Credit: Marc-Andre Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
DAKAR/BISSAU , Jun 11 2013 (IPS)

In Dakar, urban commuters are familiar with kids as young as five years old begging on street corners at all hours of the day or the night, with torn, dirty clothes, collecting donations in an empty tin can.

Here, these boys are called Talibés, which means students of an Islamic school, or daara. Traditionally, they were sent to neighbourhood houses to “learn modesty through begging,” while spending most of their day studying the Quran with their teacher, the marabout.

But times have changed, and now a number of Talibés face a harsh life as some marabouts make a living out of the exploitation of these boys.

Several daaras can be found in Yoff, a poor neighbourhood in this West African nation’s capital city.

In one, located in an unfinished building, about 20 boys are sleeping on the concrete floor. There is no need to enter; everything can be seen from the street.

A Talibé on the streets says he is 12 years old, but looks six. He spends his day repeating: “Give me alms.”

Later, he tells IPS: “I have to bring back (one dollar) to the daara or my marabout will lash me with an electrical cable.” He cannot recite a single verse of the Quran. In his tin box, he has some sugar and coins given to him by people.

“People give to these kids without realising what’s happening. These kids are invisible,” Isabelle de Guillebon, the director of Samusocial Sénégal, an NGO helping street kids, tells IPS. In a shelter in Ouakam, a booming middle-class neighbourhood of Dakar, she and her staff accumulate horror stories. On her desk is an iron cast used to restrain the wrists of the Talibés. She says many of them are victims of physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

When nine Talibés died after a daara burned down Mar. 3 in Dakar’s Medina neighbourhood, people in Senegal were outraged. Authorities closed down the daara and returned the children to their families, including 10 from neighbouring Guinea-Bissau.

It is not the first time the government has tried to act. Several NGOs, notably Human Rights Watch, have pressured the authorities, often pointing to the crossroads of Islamic authorities and political power as a reason for inaction.

In 2005 the government passed stricter laws against begging, including stronger sentences for mistreating children.

But some 8,000 Talibés are still begging on Dakar’s street corners. And three months after the Medina tragedy, little progress has been made towards a real solution to the problem.

De Guillebon is sceptical about easy solutions as she sees that the issue is far more complex than religion and politics.

“They are not Talibés. They are street kids,” she says. For her, the so-called Talibés are just part of the 10,000 to 12,000 street children roaming the streets of Dakar.

Since 2003, Samusocial has had two mobile teams travelling the streets of the Senegalese capital to work with these children.

“These kids face a breakdown in family ties. Many of them come from regions far away. They experienced a harsh psychological and sociological shock: they pass from the middle age to the 21st century,” says de Guillebon.

De Guillebon says the children need psychological support in order to be successfully reunited with their families. “There is a need for family mediation. There is a reason why they are there. It is a sociological crisis. And they will come back if you do not take care of that.”

The core of the issue, she says, is to convince parents to not abandon their children.

In neighbouring Guinea-Bissau’s capital, Bissau, Laudolino Carlos Medina heads the Associao dos Amigos da Criança or Association of Children’s Friends, which provides family mediation to assist in the repatriation of the boys, and to prevent them from being lured into a life of begging for marabouts. They are now busy getting ready to receive the 10 boys from Dakar.

“A number of children are lured to Dakar. Marabouts come to villages and take advantage of the lack of education and opportunities.”

Medina knows about several tricks used by marabouts to convince parents. “They bring two or three talibés who they have trained to sing one of the Quran surahs. Parents see how good the boys are, and entrust their own children to the marabouts thinking they will also do well.”

In Guinea-Bissau, 55 percent of the population lives below the poverty line and about 50 percent of children have never enrolled in school, according to the World Bank.

Ousmane Baldé, from Guinea-Bissau, makes the 17-hour commute from his country to Dakar several times a month. His sister sent her son to a daara in the Senegalese capital.

“I told them what I saw in Dakar before they sent their boy. But they are sure he is in good hands, no matter what I tell them. The family believes that he is ensured a better future, and that they are not responsible anymore.”

Back in Dakar, Ousmane Ndiaye, a Senegalese taxi driver, screams at two Talibés fighting on the street corner. “Look at those kids. Poor behaviour. Delinquents!”

Ndiaye sends his two sons and his daughter to daaras.

“They need to learn the Quran, like I did. But during the weekdays they go to the state school. My marabout agrees with that. I think that traditional and modern schools can go hand in hand. Kids need to have both. In daaras, my children have learnt our Islamic values. It is important for the Senegalese.”

Looking back at the two boys fighting, he adds, “And those kids learned none of them. They learn how to become criminals. Shame on their parents!”

Two Tuareg girls are playing at Goudebo Refugee Camp in Burkina Faso. The crisis has forced 170,000 refugees, mostly Tuaregs and Arabs to flee north Mali in fear of retaliation from the Malian army. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso, Mar 13 2013 (IPS)

As the Malian army and its foreign partners are slowly securing northern cities in the West African nation, it is still unclear how the country will turn its back on the political crisis that led to the March 2012 military coup.

“If the Malian government wants to re-establish itself over Mali, they need the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. We, Tuaregs, have been at war for 52 years. And we will continue until our people’s living conditions change,” Ibrahim ag Mohamed Assaleh, from the separatist organisation known by its French acronym MNLA, tells IPS in an exclusive interview in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou.

In January 2012, the MNLA led an attack against a military base in Menaka, in Gao region, calling for an end to the marginalisation of northern Mali‘s nomad populations. Three months later they took control of the country’s north. Soon after, however, the MNLA was pushed aside by a coalition of Islamists militants composed of Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, Ansar Dine and the Movement of Unity and Jihad in West Africa.

“The (January) intervention of France and the international community is welcomed in the Azawad by the MNLA as long as they are fighting terrorists, who we have fought for many months,” says Assaleh, who is part of the team negotiating with the Malian government.

On Jan. 29, Mali’s interim President Dioncounda Traoré announced a roadmap for transition, setting elections for no later than the end of July. But the MNLA says it has not been consulted and included, and therefore will not participate.

“They might organise elections where they feel like it. But we do not see those elections happening, at least in our land. Our concerns have not been taken into consideration,” says Assaleh.

Mediation was initiated between the Malian government, the MNLA and the Islamist group Ansar Dine by neighbouring Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore in August 2012, but the talks are now stalled.

“They still occur, but at a slower pace since the French intervention was launched,” explains a member of the Burkinabe mediation team who prefers to remain anonymous. Mali has been pressured by United Nations Resolution 2085 to negotiate with non-terrorist groups.

“Some lobbies in Bamako do not see the point of negotiating any more. That weakens peace. And this might be costly to the government,” comments Assaleh.

Yvan Guichaoua, a West African expert on non-government armed groups and a lecturer at the University of East Anglia, tells IPS that the responsibility of the present chaos is shared between those in the north and south of Mali.

“The problem is that Bamako authorities show no intention at all to negotiate with the MNLA at this stage. The MNLA is considered to have initiated the present chaos, which is only partly true – recurring rebellions have hit Mali since its independence.”

However, Dr. Roland Marchal, senior research fellow and specialist on the economics and politics of conflict in sub-Saharan Africa at the National Centre for Scientific Research, based at Sciences-Po in Paris, tells IPS that a political compromise between the government, the MNLA and Ansar Dine is not the way to secure northern Mali.

“First, all those actors may not be representative of the population enough to define and enforce an agreement. That is why a formula such as a National Conference that would encompass many actors rooted in the political, social, religious and cultural arenas, may offer a greater chance to reach a sustainable agreement,” he says, adding that all three groups also face allegations of huge violations of basic human rights.

“There is a need to fine tune between a new social contract that would include some kind of amnesty and the need for justice. This can be achieved by the Malians themselves, not the international community or the International Criminal Court (ICC).”

The Malian army has been accused of committing arbitrary killings against the Tuaregs – executions that have been documented by several human rights groups. The claims forced the Malian army chief of staff, General Ibrahima Dahirou Dembele, to call presumed military perpetrators back from the front.

Human Rights Watch accused the MNLA and its allies of committing executions, pillages and rapes during a 2012 attack on the Aguelhok military camp in northern Mali. The MNLA detained and executed up to 153 Malian soldiers, according the Malian government and the International Federation of Human Rights.

The allegations were serious enough for the ICC to launch an investigation. The Malian government has issued arrest warrants against 26 people, including Assaleh. Four members of the MNLA have been arrested in Mali, to date.

“The warrants are a non-event,” defends Assaleh. “Agelhok’s January 2012 massacres have not been perpetrated by the MNLA. We want an independent inquiry and we are ready to participate with the ICC.”

Beyond the roadmap, Assaleh remains sceptical of developments.

“We have signed many agreements in the past. Now we need to apply them. We need a definitive solution to the problems of the Azawad. Since the coup, nothing has changed. (Mali’s ousted President) Amadou Toumani Touré’s networks are still really powerful and want to retain control. The MNLA will not support that.”

But who does the MNLA represent?

Assaleh is adamant that the MNLA represents 90 percent of Tuaregs, 40 percent of Fulanis, and 30 percent of Arabs.

“We have legitimate historical claims, even if we are a minority. This is our land. We invited all Tuaregs to join. But many do not want to talk to us. Among them are people who have supported all regimes, including the one of the dictator Moussa Traoré …they stayed in Bamako to keep their salaries, their privileges,” Assaleh says, referring to several Tuareg personalities who have joined the government and, he believes, made a lucrative business of the development of the north.

But Guichaoua says the MNLA remains heavily Tuareg “despite some roles offered to non-Tuaregs (Arabs, Songhay) in its official, yet phony, structure of command.”

“As a result, it arguably represents a small share of the population of the Azawad, mostly the Idnan and Chamanamas Tuareg tribes,” he says.

Marchal agrees, saying that the MNLA is poorly representative of the Azawad or Tuareg population in north Mali.

“The MNLA is seen as a group of thugs by many in Mali,” he says.

In Kidal, the MNLA’s stronghold in northern Mali, the French and Chadian army have ensured the securitisation of the area in cooperation with the MNLA, to the detriment of the Malian army. According to the MNLA, the Malian army is not able to protect northerners and Assaleh says the deployment of the army could only lead to more repression for Tuaregs.

But Guichaoua says that building a legitimate political representation from within the country will prevent the recurrence of another rebellion.

“(It) is the challenge ahead.”

*Additional reporting by Mathieu Carat in New York

Ramatou Wallet Madouya (r) and her sister Fatma (l) in Goudebo camp, Burkina Faso. They are many of the Malians who fled the fighting in their country. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
GOUDEBO, Burkina Faso, Feb 22 2013 (IPS)

Fatimata Wallet Haibala sits among a group of women and teenage girls under a tent, her handicapped boy on her lap. The scene could be a rural picture of a Tuareg gathering in the desert. But the mother mother of five resides in a refugee camp in Goudebo, Burkina Faso, almost 100 kilometres from their home in Mali.

“Life is harsher for women in the camp,” she tells IPS. “We have to take care of the family — men can walk around freely.” The widow makes money by re-selling to her fellow refugees the boxed milk and sugar that she buys from outside the camp. She has been here for more than a year now, escaping Mali before the crisis first hit in 2012.

In early 2012, a rebellion saw the Tuareg – a traditionally nomadic community living across parts of Mali, Niger and Algeria– take over the north and nearly two-thirds of the country. But they did not hold the terrority for long.

In April 2012, a coalition of armed Islamist groups allied with Al-Qaeda chased out the secular Tuareg-led National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad.

The coalition – composed of Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA), and Ansar Dine – was able to hold on the territory until a French intervention allowed the Malian army to reclaim the north last month.

The crisis, so far, has created over 150,000 refugees in neighbouring countries – 40,000 in Burkina Faso alone – and 230,000 internally displaced persons within Mali.

Every day, new refugees arrive at the camps. Most are “fair skinned” – Malian Arabs and Tuaregs.

Fear of the retaliation at home

The late father of Haibala’s children, a Tuareg, was a soldier loyal to the Malian army who died fighting a rebellion in Agelhok in eastern Mali, last February.

As soon as the rebellion came closer to her home, Haibala chose to leave. She arrived in the camp in February 2012, long before Islamists imposed Sharia law in the north.

“In Gao, all “fair skin” left. Now, we hear that they hunt us – I don’t see the day yet when we will go back,” the 49-year-old woman says.

Fresh attacks shook the town as recenlty as Thursday, Feb. 21., when the Malian army battled Islamists.

The fear of retaliation from their communities back home is the main reason why they do not want return to Mali.

Stories of attacks against light-skinned folks, true or false, are intertwined with the harsh memories of the Tuareg rebellions of the 1990s, during which the Malian army and paramilitary groups executed several Tuareg and Arab civilians.

Recent statements from Human Rights Watch confirm that executions have been carried out by the country’s army on suspected Islamist rebels and supporters, but President Dioncounda Traoré denied the allegations on Feb.20.

Safe – for now

Meanwhile, the refugee women gathered under a tent in the camp to discuss rumours of rapes and killings.

Though none of the women here have been witness to the atrocities, they have heard stories. “We know that some traders have been killed by the army at Gao’s market,” comments Fatma Targui.

Further away, in another tent, Abou Haoula and some friends drink tea. Tradition prevails in Goudebo and men and women do not mix much here.

The men arrived here in January from Gao. Some came by cars, some rode on the back of donkeys or camels. When they reached their country’s boarder with Burkina Faso, they were taken in by the United Nations Refugee Agency.

“We fled because of the bombings and fighting – that was just too much. A lost bullet could have hit us … We had to leave,” explains Haoula, who is in his fifties.

He says that, from the time of the Islamist invasion untill the bombings, they had been able to receive a steady delivery of food from Algeria and from Bamako. After the French launched the first bombings in January, all life and the deliveries of needed supplies stopped. It is only then that Hauola and other refugees left.

“The MUJWA was harsh, but they left us alone if we complied by the rules,” Amidy Ag Habo, tells IPS. Back home, he was the deputy mayor of N’takala, a small town 60 kilometres outside of Gao.

“We did not know the Islamists. They were foreigners,” he adds, but still, the “fair skinned” are perceived as allies to the MUJWA in Gao.

The Goudebo refugee camp lies in an arid region. Here, NGOs had to dig water holes and build basic infrastructure to meet the needs of some 7,444 refugees who had to be relocated here in January.

Fears that fighting from Mali would spill across the border and kidnapping threats were some of the reasons why authorities relocated the camp.

Inspite of the harsh conditions, Haoula is relieved to be here. “Now, we are able to sleep tight. I was not able to close an eye in Mali,” he says.

The men, still dressed in their Tuareg headscarves, share the feeling that it is most likely payback time in Gao.

“There is no government in northern Mali now. All decisions are taken by the military. They are the police, the judges, and the government. The French do not kill. They simply disregard what the Malian army is doing,” says Habo.

For Fatou Wallet Mahadi, the Islamists were a lesser evil compared to the Malian army.

“There is no Mali without Azawad. We, Tuaregs of the Azawad, now belong to Mali. We trust that one day we will be able to go back. But right now it is impossible. There are too many tensions. We are tired of violence erupting every 10 years. When we go back, we need to work on a real solution to live together,” she says.

Churches in Diabaly, central Mali, were looted and destroyed during the Islamist occupation. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
MOPTI, Mali, Feb 11 2013 (IPS)

At the entrance to the Evangelical church in Mopti, central Mali, military soldiers stood on either side of the door as Pastor Luc Sagara greeted his parishioners for Sunday mass.

The presence of the soldiers were a stark reminder that less than three weeks ago the town was under threat by Islamist extremists committed to the imposition of Sharia law in this West African nation.

“We feel safe now. With the French intervention, we are hopeful that the Islamists will not attack us,” Sagara told IPS.

France launched a military intervention in Mali on Jan. 11 at the request of the country’s interim President Dioncounda Traoré after extremists advanced on the town of Konna, 60 kilometres northeast of Mopti. As the Islamists occupied town after town, intent on seizing the capital Bamako, Sharia law was imposed, and Christians and moderate Muslims were persecuted.

Since April 2012, northern Mali has been taunted by a coalition of armed groups composed of Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, and Ansar Dine, an Islamist group among Mali’s Tuareg population that live across the country’s southeast.

The rebels reportedly destroyed religious shrines and church buildings, and imposed extreme Sharia law – engaging in public floggings, executions and amputations.

International rights group, Human Rights Watch, said that the rebels engaged in extensive looting, pillage, the recruitment of child soldiers and the rape of women and young girls. “Armed groups in northern Mali in recent weeks have terrorised civilians by committing abductions and looting hospitals,” Corinne Dufka, senior Africa researcher at HRW, said in April 2012.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, the recent conflict has led to the internal displacement of 250,000 people. Mopti was one of the towns that people from the north sought refuge in.

Many of the minority Christians, who constitute five percent of the country’s 15.8 million people, either fled Mopti or were living here in fear of Islamic occupation

A local Imam from the town, Abdoulaye Maiga, told IPS that no one had been safe from the extremists, regardless of their religious affiliations.

“We are all victims of those terrorists. We are all Malians and we all fled together,” he said. Members of his family had taken flight from northern Mali’s largest town of Gao.

“When my family came here, they brought with them a Christian family, and we loaned them some of our (traditional) clothes so the terrorists would let them travel without problems.”

In Diabaly, a liberated central Malian town, Pastor Daniel Konaté prepared for his first Christian service since the Islamists were ousted. The graffiti on the church wall that read, “Allah is the only one”, and the bullets scattered on the floor served as a reminder of the Islamist occupation.

“They made my church a military base,” Konaté told IPS. During the occupation he and his family fled to a village 20 kilometers away, returning only after Malian and French forces successfully repelled Islamists here on Jan. 21.

But Konaté still wonders how the extremists had known that this plain unassuming building, which has no signs to indicate that it is a place of worship, was a church.

“We think some people might have told them that this is a church,” said Konaté as 30 parishioners gathered and the service began with the singing of “It is not God who betrays us. It is men that betray God.”

Ever since locals recognised two former high-ranking Malian military soldiers who used to be posted in Diabaly among the Islamist forces, community members believe the Islamist fighters had local support. Now, neighbours who once lived peacefully together are suspicious of one another.

During the town’s occupation Pascal Touré’s small four-bedroom house on the outskirts of Diabaly hid 27 Christian refugees terrified of being singled out for persecution by the occupying Islamists.

“It seems obvious that some locals reported where the Christians were. Among the locals, everybody knows each other,” he told IPS.

But Touré, a Christian who also teaches catechism, is adamant that seeking revenge is not a solution.

The refugees have left Touré’s house and returned to their own homes in Diabaly “but life in the town will not be the same for Christians.”

Though there are some here who hang on to the memories of a peaceful past, optimistically believing that life will return to what it had been before the conflict. Bakary Traoré, a Muslim and a retired teacher, is one of them.

“Christians were targeted. But all of Diabaly has been a victim. The Islamists did not have the time to impose Sharia, but if they did, everyone would have suffered. They did not succeed. And now we can all live in harmony like we were before. As one people.”

A couple of burned cars and abandoned Malian tanks now remind visitors that violent fights occurred in Diabaly in central Mali. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
DIABALY, Mali , Feb 2 2013 (IPS)

“We know they are close. We do not feel safe,” mutters Allassane Traoré, as he stares down the road on which the Islamists entered the town of Diabaly in central Mali, almost two weeks ago.

Traoré himself a muslim and a muezzin — the person who leads and recites the call to prayer at the local mosque – became nervous when he saw a line of pick-up trucks filled with Al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadists driving around town on Jan. 14, some 250 kilometres from the country’s capital Bamako. He sent his kids and wife away.

“They were violent and they destroyed everything – they can come back at any time,” he tells IPS, speaking in front of his modest blue mosque. “We have seen them snorting white powder. They are not good Muslims.”

For the past year, almost two-thirds of this West African nation was occupied by a coalition of armed groups composed of Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, and Ansar Dine, an Islamist group among the Tuareg – a traditionally nomadic Berber people that live across large parts of Mali and Niger.

The Islamists, who say they are committed to the imposition of Sharia law, gained control of Diabaly for over a week until Malian and French forces successfully repelled them on Jan. 21. The attack against Diabaly triggered the ongoing French-led international intervention – on request by Mali’s interim president Dioncounda Traore – that eventually pushed the Islamist fighters out of three key cities in the north.

A couple of burned cars and abandoned Malian tanks now remind visitors that violent fights occurred in the small community surrounded by rice paddies. French flags have since been flying on shops and motorcycles around town, put up by locals convinced that France’s 2,500-troop-strong intervention saved them from Islamist rule.

The terrorists, while unable to read or write, “were better trained and equipped than the Malian army,” Diakaridia Doumbia, a retired military solider who is now a city councilor, tells IPS.

“They said they were against the government, not against the population. We did not believe that,” Oumar Diakité, the mayor of Diabaly, tells IPS. “We heard about Sharia in the north, the amputation and the flogging — many fled knowing what would happen next, even if terrorists tried to deceive locals by being nice.”

French special forces have left for the north and life seems to be back to normal in Diabaly. In the surrounding area, a small garrison of Malian troops has settled down, waiting for reinforcement from the 4,500 African troops that are expected to be deployed around Mali in the next weeks.

Insecurity and anxiety

But further up the road towards the north, inhabitants of Dogofiri do not share the enthusiasm of Diabaly dwellers. Here, people stare at the ground and refuse to talk to foreigners.

“We know terrorists are still there hiding in the bush. They could come back at any time and retaliate,” Ousmane Diarra, a shopkeeper, tells IPS.

The few checkpoints on the dusty road, manned by two or three Malian military soldiers idling in plastic sandals, do not reassure the locals here.

“The Malian army has not been able to stop the Islamist advance — they run away. And, in spite of the attacks, security has not been reinforced,” one local, who prefers to remain anonymous, tells IPS. “It can happen again any time soon.”

What’s more, many locals fear the Malian military.

“They have beaten up an old man. They also have executed a man in plain daylight,” another Dogofiri resident tells IPS. “They said he collaborated with the Islamists.”

In Dogofiri, all Tuaregs and Arabs – the “fair skinned” people who used to sell goods in the local market – have since left.

“There is a feeling of anxiety,” the local adds. “Citizens are afraid of the military.”

On Friday, Feb. 1, Human Rights Watch accused the Malian army, which ousted the democratically elected civilian government last March, of executing 13 Islamist supporters in broad daylight.

In another incident, last September, just a few kilometres from the town, the Malian military executed 16 unarmed Muslim preachers crossing the Mauritanian border. French-based human rights group the International Federation of Human Rights recorded at least 11 extrajudicial incidents by the army in January.

Back in Diabaly city hall, the city council is treading cautiously.

“It is not a matter of race,” Diakité stresses. “The first person killed in Diabaly by Islamists was a Tuareg. We know who is good and who is bad.”

“In Mali, we all have family members from other races,” the mayor explains, “including Tuaregs. There are criminals and there are Malians. Mali is a multi-ethnic country and we live well together.”

But other suspicions are keeping the town alert and eager for justice.

Ever since locals recognised two former high-ranking Malian military soldiers who used to be posted in Diabaly among the Islamist forces, community members believe the Islamist fighters had local support.

“People want revenge, especially the youth,” says Doumbia. “We have identified collaborators who have provided information to terrorists — we see them as traitors.”

Once the the dust is settled down, he will denounce them and justice will be served, the councilman says. But “for now, we are a country at war.”