A tale of two children fleeing the Ivory Coast

Once the armed conflict in the Ivory Coast began, people began to flee the country to safety. The armed conflict in Cote d'Ivoire began earlier this year when two political rivals contested an election and took to fighting to gain power. 175,800 people crossed into Liberia alone and that does not include the many who escaped into other neighboring countries. To this day, most of those people stay in refugee camps operated by the United Nations and the International Red Cross.

From the Guardian, writer Liz Ford has this story of two children who had to flee to a camp without their parents.

It was when armed men appeared in town that 13-year-old Israel Gbehe knew it was time to run.

The town of Toulepleu in Guiglo county, Ivory Coast, was under attack. Israel didn't know if the fighters were supporters of Laurent Gbagbo, the country's deposed president, or Alassane Ouattara, his successor. What he did know was that he needed to find his five-year-old sister, Pacifique, and join the crowd of people fleeing the town and heading to the Liberian border.

"I just saw armed men that came to the town. I didn't have time to see my family," says Israel, who at the time was living with relatives in the town while he and his sister attended school. "We walked through the bush back to my parents house, but when we got there I didn't see my parents. We met other people escaping to Liberia so we joined them."

The next day Israel and Pacifique were at a UN refugee transit point in the north-east of Liberia and eventually transferred to Bahn refugee camp in Nimba county.

That was in March. By the end of May, Israel had still not heard from his parents or knew their whereabouts.

Israel and Pacifique are among more than 2,000 children now at Bahn camp, situated 52km from the Ivory Coast border. The camp was built in January in an attempt to ease the pressure on the border towns that were filling up with Ivorians fleeing post-election violence. Bahn is built to accommodate 15,000 people, although by May only around 5,000 had arrived. The majority of people have chosen instead to stay a little closer to home, and in many cases have been offered shelter in the homes of Liberians living in villages dotted along the border (Liberian families are returning the favour for the support they received from Ivorians when they were forced to escape civil war).

Video: Gbagbo captured by rival's forces

From Al Jazeera, a video on the capture of former Cote d'Ivoire president Laurent Gbagbo.

Video: Gbagbo's chequered political career

From Al Jazeera, a video on the political history of Laurent Gbagbo; the former president of Cote d'Ivoire who refuses to stand down and instead wages a bloody war.

Cote d'Ivoire battle moves to the capitol

Military forces loyal to Cote d'Ivoire election winner Alassane Ouattara are advancing on the capitol Abidjan. Once there, a heavy violent battle will begin between them and the forces behind Laurent Gbagbo. The Ivory Coast President Gbagbo lost an election last fall but has been fighting to stay in power ever since. The armed actions of the two political leaders have caused a massive humanitarian crisis in the country. The crisis will only get worse when fighting begins in the capital city as many residents will be in harms way.

Reuters is reporting that the African Union has finally called on Laurent Gbagbo to step down. It does appear he will have to be forced out in bloody fashion as he has thus far not stepped away peacefully.

The best update on the humanitarian angle of the story comes again from Amnesty international. The human rights organization is calling on the international community to protect the people in the capitol city.

“Abidjan is on the brink of a human right catastrophe and total chaos,” said Salvatore Saguès, Amnesty International’s researcher on West Africa.

“Côte d’Ivoire is facing a major humanitarian crisis. The parties to the conflict must immediately stop targeting the civilian population,” said Salvatore Saguès. “The international community must take immediate steps to protect the civilian population.”

Since the beginning of the week, the Republican Forces loyal to internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara have launched a general offensive against the forces loyal to outgoing president Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to cede power.

As the Republican Forces advance in the west and in the centre of the country, violence has escalated.

A recent flashpoint has been in the town of Guiglo, 600 km west of Abidjan, where sources have told Amnesty International that uncontrolled armed elements loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, including Liberian mercenaries, burned and looted houses, and shot and wounded several civilians yesterday.

“The escalation of this conflict, and increased reliance on mercenaries and untrained recruits, means there is a huge and immediate risk of massive human rights violations in the coming days as the Republican Forces advance on Abidjan,” said Salvatore Saguès.

On 19 March, Gbagbo's minister for youth Charles Blé Goudé, called on Gbagbo’s Young Patriot movement members to volunteer as militiamen to ‘liberate’ the country. The Young Patriots have announced that they have recruited 20,000 soldiers.

Amnesty International has also received reports of retribution attacks against civilians committed by both sides in the western town of Duékoué.

Local sources have told Amnesty International’s delegation currently in Côte d’Ivoire that dead bodies are still lying in the streets of Duékoué, and tens of thousands of civilians are still sheltering in the Catholic Mission without adequate food, water, sanitation and medical care.

On 29 March, the Republican Forces killed civilian Jean Louana, election campaign director of one of the current ministers appointed by Laurent Gbagbo. They also shot down a Pastor of an evangelical church along with eight members of his congregation.

Sanctions and changes in Cote d'Ivoire

A couple of new developments occurred yesterday for the ongoing political turmoil in Cote d-Ivoire. The armed forces for internationally recognized President Alassane Ouattara took control San Pedro. The port town is very important to the economy of Cote d'Ivoire because most of the cocoa exports are shipped out from San Pedro. The Ivory Coast is the worlds biggest exporter of the cocoa crop.

Secondly, the United Nations voted for sanctions against Cote d'Ivoire President Gbagbo. Laurent Gbagbo lost an election in October but refuses to step down. Gbagbo's refusal has led to the armed conflict and humanitarian crisis in the country.

First, on the change in control of Cote d'Ivorie's major sea port. Reuters writers Tim Cocks and Ange Aboa report from the embattled area.

Residents and combatants from both sides said the pro-Ouattara forces were in control and were patrolling the town, and that it was now largely calm apart from some sporadic shooting.

"We have taken the port of San Pedro. Gbagbo's forces have all left. We are in full control," a military spokesman for Ouattara's forces, Seydou Ouattara, told Reuters.

Resisting pressure from the African Union and the West, Gbagbo has refused to step down since a presidential election last November, which U.N.-certified results showed he lost to Ouattara by an 8-point margin, sparking a deadly power struggle.

"Shooting started at around 9 p.m. (2100 GMT on Wednesday) then we saw the rebels' vehicles drive into the town," said one San Pedro resident, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals. "Everyone's staying indoors, but we're still hearing a lot of gunfire."

Next up, we will get details on the new UN sanctions from the Voice of America and writer Margaret Besheer.

The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously to impose sanctions on Ivory Coast’s defiant incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo, who, despite international demands, refuses to hand over power to the internationally recognized winner of the November presidential election.

Resolution 1975 calls on Mr. Gbagbo to respect the will of the Ivorian people and "immediately step aside," ceding power to Alassane Ouattara, whom the United Nations has certified as the winner of the election.

The resolution, approved Wednesday, urges the nearly 10,000 U.N. peacekeepers in Ivory Coast to use "all necessary means" to protect civilians under "imminent threat of violence," including to prevent the use of heavy weapons against the civilian population.

In a bid to increase pressure on Mr. Gbagbo, the 15-member Council also imposed an asset freeze and travel ban on him, his wife and three close associates.

France and Nigeria co-sponsored the resolution in the Council. French Ambassador Gérard Araud told reporters the situation in Ivory Coast is "worsening by the hour." "In a sense this resolution is maybe the last message that we wanted to send to Gbagbo which is very simple: Gbagbo must go. It is the only way to avoid a full-fledged civil war and maybe bloody violence in the streets of Abidjan," Araud said.

The U.N. says at least 462 people have been killed since the political crisis began in early December. Up to 1 million more have been displaced, with thousands of refugees fleeing to neighboring Liberia and Ghana.

Reports from Ivory Coast Wednesday said forces opposed to Mr. Gbagbo have seized the country’s administrative capital, Yamoussoukro, although Mr. Gbagbo’s troops still control the main seat of power, the commercial city of Abidjan. Pro-Ouattara forces also have seized several other towns and claim to control nearly 75 percent of the country.

Mr. Gbagbo’s government is calling for a cease-fire, but Nigerian Ambassador Joy Ogwu said it is only because he feared imminent action from the Security Council.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said Mr. Gbagbo has a choice. "Mr. Gbagbo and his supporters can continue to cling to power, which will only lead to more innocent civilians being wounded and killed, and more diplomatic and economic isolation. Or Mr. Gbagbo and his followers can finally reject violence and respect the will of the Ivorian people," she said.

She said that if the latter path is chosen, Ivorians can reclaim their country and rebuild a vibrant economy that once was the admiration of all of Africa.

Cote d'Ivoire civilians caught in fighting

Amnesty International is calling on United Nations Peacekeepers to protect 10,000 refugees in the west of Cote d'Ivoire. The large group of refugees are only three kilometers away from heavy fighting and are without protection.

Amnesty fears that the refugees could be caught in between the fighting. In January forty civilians were killed and many women raped when fighting began between troops supporting two political leaders.

President Laurent Gbagbo lost an election in October but doesn't want to concede power to internationally recognized winner Alassane Ouattara. Both sides have amassed armies in an effort to control the nation.

From Amnesty International, this statement helps to give us some much needed information on the crisis in Cote d'Iviore.

As many as 10,000 civilians are sheltering in the mission in the town of Duékoué, after fleeing fierce battles yesterday between forces supporting the internationally recognized elected President Alassane Ouattara and militiamen loyal to outgoing President Laurent Gbagbo.

“The UNOCI mandate in Côte d’Ivoire requires the peacekeepers to protect civilians at imminent threat of physical violence. They must act immediately to prevent further bloodshed,” said Veronique Aubert, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Africa.

“The UNOCI camp is only about 3 km away from Duékoué and we are urging them to use all means necessary to protect civilians against the violence taking place on their own doorstep.”

The situation in the west of Côte d’Ivoire has been volatile since the November 2010 contested presidential elections. All parties to the conflict have committed serious human rights violations including unlawful killings and rape and sexual violence against women.

Witnesses have told Amnesty International’s delegation currently in Côte d’Ivoire that yesterday, forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara took partial or total control of Duékoué and Daloa, two towns located in the heart of the western cocoa belt.

Sources said electricity in Duékoué has also been cut, apparently as a result of the fighting, depriving people in the area of water.

Today's biggest human rights crisis.... it's not Libya

The biggest human rights crisis going on now is not in Japan or Libya. Yet, the western press has largely ignored this other crisis. Over a million people have fled  and hundreds have been killed  in this other crisis. They flee because a politician who lost an election is trying to silence anyone who demands that he step down. Again, this is not in Libya, but is in the West African nation of Cote d'Ivoire.

Laurent Gbagbo remains in power despite losing an October election. Whenever people take to the streets to protest Gdagbo, he always sends police to fire on the crowd to disperse them. Alassane Ouattara is the internationally recognized winner of the election.

A blog post we found today provides an exhaustive reference source for what is going in Cote d'Ivoire. The blog Phil In The Blank hosts this great post titled Blog for Cote d'Ivoire. It contains links and snippets of stories from many news sources. As well as giving you a primer on the situation, the post also asks the question why the media isn't covering it, and gives you many links and resources to become more involved. Our snippet focuses on ways to spread the word about Cote d'Ivoire.

The people I spoke with in the doctor’s office yesterday did not know where Cote d’Ivoire was. Honestly, it’s hard to fault them. Education system does a poor job. Media is just as bad.

Talk to people. When most people hear the story they may envision some kind of tribal bush warfare.

Let them know that Cote d’Ivoire was once an economic powerhouse. 40% of the world’s cocoa is produced here and Abidjan has a skyline that looks like this. These facts are significant in the sense that they challenge common perceptions of Africa.

I’m not naive. I know that the fate of Cote d’Ivore rests in much larger machinery, namely the AU, ECOWAS, and the UN, or within the hands of Ivorians themselves. But allowing Cote d’Ivoire some space in our attention span does not take much effort, and with added eyes and hopefully, more news coverage, there is a chance that there will be less humanitarian crimes and of those that are committed, they will be widely seen and the people responsible will be held accountable.

In her blog Wait... What? Linda Raftree quotes this letter that she received from a friend working in West Africa. Her friend gives us the definitive reason why no one cares about Cote D'Ivorie and focuses on Libya instead.

Why this differential treatment? Well, the answer is fairly simple: Libya has oil, Cote d’Ivoire not. In the case of Libya the AU stood still and did not comment – not surprisingly as Khaddafi pays for most of half of all country memberships in the AU and has been a tremendous support for development in individual countries. In the case of Cote d’Ivoire they mobilized themselves to act but their negotiation missions all failed. It’s a crazy world. There is no interest from the international community in Human Rights. There is only interest in access and control over resources.”

Video: Thousands displaced by Ivorian violence

From Al Jazeera, a video about the continuing violence in Cote d'Ivoire.

Video: Ivory Coast crisis hits cocoa economy

From Al Jazeera, a video about Cote d'Ivoire cocoa farmers who are caught in-between the political impasse.

More shootings on peaceful protesters in Cote d'Ivoire

Protesters in Cote d'Ivoire continue to be fired upon by government security forces. Four women were shot dead as thousands of women marched in what began as a peaceful protest. This follows an incident several days ago where eight people were shot dead.

Cote d'Ivoire remains at a political impasse because Laurent Gbagbo remains in power despite losing a recent election. The protesters are demanding that internationally recognized winner Alassane Ouattara be installed as the country's leader.

From Reuters Alert Net, reporters Media Coulibaly and Tim Cocks give us the latest from the Ivory Coast.

Ever since Gbagbo rejected U.N.-certified results showing he lost a November presidential election to Ouattara, supporters of the latter have seen their attempts at protest met with violent repression.

These ones initially appeared to go more peacefully, but were swiftly followed by outbreaks of gunfire.

In the downtown retail district of Treichville, witnesses said security forces fired on pro-Ouattara youths near a church, killing three young men and a 21-year-old women.

"It was a sit in. We prayed, some Muslims some Christians, then we went to St Jean church. Then we heard firing outside," said Helene Sommet, a Ouattara activist who helped evacuate the dead from the scene and take the wounded to a clinic.

"We took in 14 wounded. I'm at the clinic right now," she said by telephone, adding that she saw a truck with some of Gbagbo's elite Republican Security Company in the street.

There was no immediate comment from Gbagbo's military.

In Port Bouet, near Abidjan's airport, witnesses said about 50 pro-Gbagbo youths armed with AK47 assault rifles and machetes turned up to disperse 200 women who tried to march there.

"They fired into the air to disperse the women. They had weapons to intimidate them, but they didn't hurt anyone," said Bernard Aurega, a Ouattara party member who saw the march.

Guest Voices: Women In Liberia Mobilize For Peace

Continuing our series of posts from Concern Worldwide is a story about the Peace Women coalition who are fasting and praying for the refugees of Côte D’Ivoire. Writer Jenny Hobbs says the Peace Women understand what the refugees are going thru because Liberia recently survived through armed conflict.

Few people are aware that a group of women – calling themselves the Peace Women, dressed in colourful lappas (Liberian cloth), bright white t-shirts and white headscarves, were instrumental in bringing peace to Liberia. Their story, which begins with the simple act of sitting along the streets for months under the hot sun or torrential rains of Liberia, led to the exile of alleged warlord Charles Taylor in 2003, now awaiting his verdict in The Hague.

In 1998, women from all tribes and religions in Liberia united in their common goal for an end to violence, and played an essential role in the decommissioning of young rebels to install peace and democracy in a war-torn country. The movement took place under the auspices of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP). Today the work of these Peace Women continues. Here in Liberia, 75 women gather on a dusty football pitch to hold a 40-day fast and prayer meeting in solidarity for the women and children in neighbouring Côte D’Ivoire, where over 7,700 refugees have fled to Liberia.

The conflict in Côte D’Ivoire is escalating rapidly – official figures from UNHCR predict that 150,000 refugees are expected to arrive in the coming weeks, although the scale and uncertainty of the conflict indicate that these figures will rise significantly.

As Mama Kolubah Johnson, a member of the Peace Women group explained to me, the dangers for women in Côte D’Ivoire are well known to her group: “We have passed through the same problem here. Women and children suffer during war, women are raped, sometimes with their husband there. When men have guns they can say: ‘My man! This woman not for you, yeah?’ If the person has a gun your husband can’t say anything.”

Mama experienced the horrors of war when she was trapped in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, as the rebel factions surrounded the city. Her husband was brutally killed during the war – oil was poured over him and he was burned alive while his wife was forced to watch. She was then left alone to care for her six-year-old daughter. It was then, that Mama Johnson decided to join the Peace Women’s movement.

Throughout the conflict in Liberia, women were subjected to rape—often gang rape—in brutal acts where objects such as bananas, pieces of wood and metal, guns, hot water, mud, dried batteries and hot peppers were used. A post-war WHO survey reported that 90 percent of interviewees, irrespective of age, marital status and religion, said they were ‘subjected to one or multiple acts of sexual abuse during the war or subsequently’. 75 percent of the 90 percent were ‘raped or otherwise badly abused, many by gangs of men’.

Throughout Liberia women joined together – Christians and Muslims from all tribes – and united in their call for an immediate end to violence.

As I spoke Mama, a Christian, was sitting next to her friend Miatta Sah, a Muslim. Miatta also lost her husband during the war, but due to the fighting it was not possible to make a grave or conduct a proper burial, a memory that still disturbs her today. Miatta talks of how proud her daughter is of her involvement with the Peace Women and her role in bringing peace to Liberia.

“We joined the group because during Taylor’s time the war was closing in on us. Our sisters, mothers and daughters were behind the fighters and in front of the fighters. We knew what would happen if the soldiers continued. We stood up on the street and cried for peace. We begged them. We went to them and physically begged for peace.”

The Accra Peace Accord was signed in 2003 and resulted in the exile of Charles Taylor. Liberia held peaceful and democratic elections in 2005, and Africa’s first female head of state was elected, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The day after the President’s inauguration she passed a new rape law, which provides harsher penalties for the rape of women, boys and children under the age of 18 years. Mama Kolubah and her colleagues in WANEP travelled throughout Liberia to support the disarmament process. Mama described her ability to forgive the perpetrators of violence:

“Those who did it, I forgive them. They didn’t know what they were doing, they were under drugs – heavy drugs – and they didn’t know. I had a burning desire to talk to them. I was assigned to Kakata to convince them to disarm, I went there. They cursed us, they cursed us and we begged them. It was when I touched his arm and asked him to leave the gun, I told him it was finished and it was time to leave the gun, and he put it down. They all cursed us but we kept begging.”

Unfortunately, gender-based violence did not end with the war. The Minister for Gender and Development highlights this in her preface to the National Plan of Action on Gender Based Violence, stating that although the conflict has ended, Liberian women and girls are still experiencing violence in all of its manifestations. Rape is the second most reported violent crime in Liberia and it is expected that actual incidence is much higher than reported.

“Rape is happening one-on-one now. They are raping little children aged 8 or 9 years. When their mothers are out getting food or finding means to pay for their education, the older men feel that the mother is not around so they catch the little girls.”

In over half (55 percent) of gender based violence cases reported between January 2009 and September 2010, the survivors were fourteen years old or younger. The Ministry of Gender and Development is working closely with women’s groups, such as WANEP and the Rural Women’s Association, to address violence against women and children, and to engage men and boys in social change.

Concern has been working in Liberia for fifteen years and has prioritized addressing Gender Based Violence through its livelihoods, HIV and AIDS, Water, Sanitation and Health (WaSH) and Education programs. Children are in danger of sexual exploitation and abuse on the way to and from school, and more shockingly, when they are attending school. Our work supports 30 rural primary schools in Grand Bassa County, south of Monrovia where only 28 percent of primary school-aged children were enrolled in school in 2009.

Our education program draws on the strength the Peace Women demonstrate in challenging violence in Liberia. We work with the Ministry of Gender and Development to provide leadership training for women in rural communities, and educate community members on child rights, women’s rights and the importance of protecting children from gender-based violence at school and in their communities.

To mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day Concern is working in collaboration with WIPNET (Women in Peace-Building Network), the Liberian branch of WANEP, to provide training to 120 rural women in Grand Bassa County on gender equality and gender-based violence.

The training and awareness-raising campaign will take place on March 7 and 8 in six rural communities, bringing together young women who have children of school-going age.

As Mama Kolubah Johnson explains, it is essential that girls are educated to become the future leaders of Liberia.

“In the rural areas as soon as someone reaches 16 years the community will encourage them to get married. As soon as they are old enough to cut palm and make oil to sell they are needed to feed their families. The parents have a role to play. I took care of my own grandchild so my daughter could continue with her education. Now she is in college studying to become an accountant.”

Civil war and humanitarian crisis... in Côte D'Ivoire

Another African country besides Libya is on the verge of civil war and humanitarian crisis.Over 200,000 people have fled Côte D'Ivoire to escape fighting over a disputed presidential election.

From the IPS, writer Fulgence Zamblé collects first person reports from a few of the refugees.

Where people have remained behind, they have been deprived of food by the closure of markets. Water and electricity supplies have been cut off and schools are effectively closed throughout the territory.

In the west of the country, according to international humanitarian organisations, around 65,000 Ivorian refugees have crossed the frontier and been registered in neighbouring Liberia in the last two weeks.

All of these are people fleeing the escalating violence and confrontation over the past two months between the two rival parties who claim victory in the presidential election of November 2010 in Côte d'Ivoire. Laurent Gbagbo was announced as the winner by the Constitutional council, while Ouattara was declared winner by the Independent Electoral Commission and is recognised as such by the international community.

"We have spent three sleepless nights because of fighting. It's impossible to find food," Adrienne Tohoua, 35-year-old mother of four told IPS. Tohoua abandoned her house in Abobo PK 18, a precarious precinct in the north of the capital, home to more than 50,000 residents.

"We left several people behind who didn't know where to go and they would have been exposed to the fighting. Mortar shells fell among the houses and would have spared no one," she said, tears in her eyes.

Three hundred refugees have taken shelter in the Saint-Ambroise de Cocody-Angré parish in the city's northeast. Some 500 others have already passed through, on their way to other locations. Every day, displaced people file along the road towards this religious site.

"I have come eight kilometres to reach here. I'm going to rest briefly before returning to the road to reach my older brother who is already sheltering 13 people at his house," explained Séraphin Téty, holding his sixty-year old father by the hand. "He suffers from hypertension, so we need to find a health centre so we can manage his condition."

Many of the displaced lack the financial means to pay to flee. "I have a little in the bank, but it's closed. I have to move part of my family to the village and I find myself unable to pay for it," said Marcellin Tanoh.

Hydroponic tomatoes in Côte d'Ivoire

The following is a story about Côte d'Ivoire but not about their political turmoil. While all of that mess has been going on, farmers have been using hydroponic techniques to improve yields on tomatoes to feed their hungry neighbors. More food is sorely needed in the nation as prices for most basic food stuffs have doubled since the election turmoil.

From the Inter Press Service, writer Fulgence Zamblé takes a look at the quiet innovations.

On his low-lying half-hectare of land, not far from Abidjan, François Adou usually grows cabbage, aubergine, potatoes, tomatoes and groundnuts on mounds. A year ago, the 43-year-old dug trenches in an 800 square metre section to devote it exclusively to a new technique for growing tomatoes.

The non-soil, or hydroponic, technique is being promoted by an independent organisation working on alleviating poverty in rural areas, the Agribusiness and Contract Farming House (known in French as GenieAgro). Farmers plant tomatoes or other crops in a substrate made up of cocoa hull fibres, sawdust and industrial waste of plant origin.

This mixture can be used to fill plastic-lined trenches, wooden boxes, or sacks supported above the ground on wooden trestles. The plants grow directly in this material.

"It's a soil-less cultivation technique," Adou told IPS, adding that the results have been great. In the first three-month planting cycle - March to May - he harvested between four and five tonnes of tomatoes. In August, he was already preparing for another harvest - this time anticipating six tonnes.

A kilo of tomatoes fetches between $1 and $1.25 in Côte d'Ivoire. On an initial investment of a million CFA francs (roughly $2000 dollars) to buy the substrate in which to grow the plants, he saw a return of $5,500 from the sale of his first harvest alone.

After Adou's second harvest last August, his neighbour Amidou Traoré had seen enough. He followed his Adou's lead and set up with the hydroponic technique on 600 square metres of his own. "I pulled in 962,500 FCFA [almost $2,000 with my first harvest]. Half went to pay back part of the investment of 850,000 FCFA ($1,700)."

Converting discarded material from cocoa and coffee processing, as well as wood chips and sawdust means manufacture of the substrate that the plants grow in dovetails neatly with a problem of disposal of industrial waste.

Food price hikes in Cote d'Ivoire

From IRIN, a story on food price hikes in Cote d'Ivoire.

While political rivals in Côte d’Ivoire trade barbs, diplomats make declarations and regional groups issue warnings, many Ivoirians are eating less so they can feed their children, as prices for basics like cooking oil, rice and flour climb, in some cases doubling.

For now the crunch is hitting mostly poor families, Ivoirians in the commercial capital Abidjan told IRIN. This is a growing population group: In 2008 nearly half of Côte d’Ivoire’s then 20 million people were below the poverty threshold of about US$1.25 per day, compared to about one-third in 2000, and 38 percent in 2002, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“Poverty has increased on a steady trend [in the past 20 years] as a result of the successive socio-political and military crises,” IMF said in a May 2009 country report.

“We’re at the end of our tether,” Françoise Mahan, a midwife in Abidjan’s Abobo District, told IRIN, one month after the presidential run-off election which ended in unprecedented deadlock with two political camps claiming power. Already after the October first round, tensions led to some prices creeping up.

“I can no longer get what I need at the market with 2,000 CFA francs [$4] for my family of three. Now I need about 50 percent more - but at the moment we just can’t afford that.”

Food prices are soaring in Abidjan and other main cities. In the northern city of Odienné and in Gagnoa in central Côte d’Ivoire, before the election crisis a kilogram of sugar cost the equivalent of about $1.25. It now costs $2.40; and the same goes for a litre of cooking oil. A sack of rice now costs around $35 in Odienné and the centre-north city of Korhogo; families could buy the same sack before the political crisis for around $26.

In Abidjan a kilogram of meat cost $2.80 before; now prices range between $4.40 and $5.

As the government of the internationally recognized president, Alassane Ouattara, called for a nationwide strike to begin on 27 December - to try to force incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo to step down - many Ivoirians are simply trying to make ends meet.

“We heard about the strike call,” said a youth in the central town of Gagnoa. “But it’s the holiday season and some people wanted to come out and try to make at least a bit of money.”

Karim Koné, petrol station attendant in Abidjan’s Adjamé District, said he eats less per day to make whatever food the family has go further. “I’ve started depriving myself of food during the day. I prefer to leave whatever I’d eat in the middle of the day for the family’s evening meal.”

Snowball effect

People’s lack of buying power is hitting vendors and this is having a snowball effect. “Before, I could make about 15,000 CFA francs [$30] a day, but since about a week ago that’s impossible,” said meat vendor in Adjamé Ousmane Diallo. “People just aren’t buying.”

In Abidjan’s wealthier neighbourhood of Cocody, Fatim Touré sat waiting for clients. “Many people just turn around when I tell them the prices,” she told IRIN. “But it’s not the vendors’ fault; with this crisis, hauliers are charging more for moving vegetables into Abidjan.”

She said a sack of aubergines which used to cost her $20, now cost $26.

For now petrol prices, which fluctuate periodically, have not yet risen significantly during the crisis; but chauffeurs told IRIN given the instability fewer drivers are venturing out and transport prices – for both passengers and goods – are up.

“Some of our colleagues have not come out because of the strike,” Abidjan taxi driver Drissa Fofana told IRIN. “But we’ve got to feed our families. The situation is tense so we take the risk; we’ve doubled our tariffs, even if petrol prices have remained the same.”

Cooking fuel is costing families more: In Abidjan a 12-kg bottle of propane gas that went for about $9, now costs about $13. A market vendor in Gagnoa told IRIN charcoal there used to be $10 a sack; now it’s double that.

“Everyone's having a tough time, so one really can’t blame the vendors,” said the mother of seven who sells juices and other items in a Gagnoa market. The crisis has simply worsened what was already a bad situation for her family; she said her husband is unemployed and they cannot afford to put their children in school.

Higher-income families in Abidjan are able to keep extra food at home just in case of further unrest. Some said the most significant impact for now is that they feel confined to their homes.

“Every week we stock up at the supermarket, just in case,” bank executive Bertrand Comoé said. “I don’t allow the children to be out after 6pm. Everyone is home by that hour; it’s like a prison. It’s stressful, but we have to do what we can to avoid the worst.”

A 5 December joint statement by the African Development Bank and World Bank expressed concern about the political situation’s impact on the average Ivoirian. Having re-engaged in Côte d’Ivoire in 2008 after suspending relations in 2004, the World Bank has closed its office in the country and stopped disbursing funds since the election crisis.

“The sustained crisis in Cote d'Ivoire will drive many more Ivoirians further into poverty and hurt stability and economic prosperity in the West African sub-region,” the statement said.

Child labor increases in Cote D'Ivoire

Yesterday we presented a story that had good news about child labor in Asia. Today however a new report from Save The Children presents a different picture for the African country Cote D'Ivoire.

Save The Children says that rising poverty in Cote D'Iviore is forcing more children into labor, sometimes in unsafe, or difficult conditions. The international NGO estimates that one quarter of all children in the country are working.

From IRIN, we read more about the report and the lives of children in Cote D'Ivoire.

Sharply rising poverty is causing exploitative child labour to increase says NGO Save the Children in its report “It’s there it’s difficult: exploitative child labour in Côte d’Ivoire,” launched today.

It is estimated that one quarter of all children work in Côte d’Ivoire and eight out of 10 of them are exploited according to the government. Harmful activities include sex work, cutting down trees, burning fields, climbing trees to collect palm oil, carrying heavy loads, working as unpaid domestics or market vendors far from their families.

With a deteriorating economy and shrinking government services, more of these children end up working, says Save the Children. Country-wide the number of people living on less than US$1.25 a day has risen from 10 percent in 1985 to 49 percent in 2008, according to the World Bank.

Most children forced to sell sex to survive in Abidjan told local NGO Cavoequiva they were brought to the capital by relatives or family friends. Côte d’Ivoire, alongside many West African countries, has a long-standing practice of families sending their children to relatives in towns to be schooled or find work or apprenticeships.

Save the Children’s child protection adviser Mark Canavera told IRIN: “The practice of relatives taking care of children or using children for light, legitimate labour have changed and become more exploitative as poverty increases.”

The report studies child labour practices in 18 Montagnes region in the west and in the Adjamé neighbourhood of Abidjan.

Rural risks

In 18 Montagnes – the country’s primary cocoa-producing area – children have traditionally helped their families in the fields, partly as a means of learning how to farm, says Save the Children.

But with rural poverty increasing and cocoa prices still relatively low, farmers have to produce more to survive and are forcing children to work longer hours, the report says.

In Doutrou village, 50km from Man, capital of 18 Montagnes region, village chief Kucsa Benoila told IRIN: “When we returned to start planting we all had to work twice as hard…even now our cocoa plantations are not yet up and running again.”

Recommendations

Local NGOs have called on international NGOS and the government to set up more care centres to support children forced to live and work on the streets.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children recently completed a study to identify the strengths and weaknesses in Côte d’Ivoire’s protection infrastructure.

Some existing government services could be extended to working children, the report suggests, such as the accelerated learning programme for children and youths whose schooling was interrupted by conflict.

Building up a wider child protective system involves improving practical services – such as medical help and care centres – economic support, for instance giving micro-credit loans to farmers, and building up the legal system, said Save the Children’s Canavera, who points out that the Ministry of Families must involve other ministries.

Thus far, he said the employment and justice ministries are “showing some interest”.

Half of the Ivory Coast in poverty

A report has the latest numbers on the amount of people in poverty in Cote d'Ivoire. A governmental meeting to produce a debt relief strategy produced the report. Cote d'Ivoire (wiki) is the African continents biggest cocoa grower.

We found the details of the report from a story in IC publications.

Poverty in the West African country of Ivory Coast has soared in the last 23 years and almost half the population lives on less than a euro (1.36 dollars) a day, a report said Monday.

"Today one person in two is poor, against one in 10 in 1985, and in the space of a generation the number of the poor has been multiplied by 10," the Poverty Reduction Strategy Document (DSRP) said.

The study, carried out by the national planning ministry, defines as poor in 2008 an Ivorian spending less than 241,145 CFA Francs (367 euros) a year, or 661 CFA francs (one euro) a day.

"Poverty has therefore seen a developing increase, passing from 10 percent in 1985 to 33.6 percent in 1998 before rising to 38.4 percent in 2002 and then 48.9 percent in 2008, " the report, published at the opening of a workshop at Grand-Bassam, 30 kilometres (20 miles) southeast of Abidjan, said.

The workshop, attended by representatives of the World Bank and the European Union, is designed to validate the DSRP, produced by the Ivorian authorities in support of debt relief.

The report shows that in the countryside 60 percent of the population are poor compared with about half in the cities.

"The poverty rate in rural areas worsened particularly in the recent period coinciding with that of the politico-military crisis," the report said.

Poverty getting worse in Côte d’Ivoire

Cote d'Ivoire has had a conflict for the last six years. The war has plunged more people into poverty. The IRIN has results of a survey that has more statistics on the once prosperous country.

Slightly under half of Côte d’Ivoire’s 20 million people are now below the poverty threshold, living on less than about US$1.25 per day - up from 38.4 percent in 2000 and the highest in 20 years, according to results released by the national statistics institute (INS) on 27 November.

The study surveyed 12,600 households to measure poverty and the conflict’s impact on households, according to INS. “Poverty in Côte d’Ivoire is becoming increasingly worrying,” Nouhoun Coulibaly, head of the INS, told reporters at the release of the results.

INS says 70 percent of Ivoirians have difficulty eating adequately and 68 percent cannot afford proper treatment when ill.

The study is done in part as backing for Côte d’Ivoire’s poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) - a document that describes a country’s macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programmes to promote growth and reduce poverty, as well as associated external financing needs and sources of financing. Côte d’Ivoire - once West Africa’s most stable and prosperous country - is finalising its first PRSP after the 2002 rebellion split the country in two.

The INS study showed that the worst-hit areas are the centre, north and northwest, as well as parts of the capital Abidjan. In the north the level of poverty reaches 77 percent, according to INS.

“The state is creating thieves, prostitutes and liars,” said a would-be university student in Séguéla, who preferred anonymity. Tensions following recent clashes between rebel factions in the city are making people afraid to complain publicly about their situation, residents told IRIN. As in other parts of Côte d’Ivoire violent crime is soaring in Séguéla, where it used to be largely unheard of, she said, as people turn to stealing, cheating and selling their bodies to get by.

“When a person has absolutely nothing to eat and no money, what do you want them to do?”