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President Laurent Gbagbo’s Speech in Bonoua: A Significant Event

Friends, dear brothers of Bonoua, I greet you and thank you. I first greet the people of my generation, as I have just been integrated into a new generation. Before arriving here, I went to greet the king. To all of you, known and unknown, I extend my greetings.

Mr. Mayor, Mr. Amétier, I participated in a ceremony with your father, who did a remarkable job by pushing the authorities to repatriate the remains of Ivorian resistance fighters. During the anti-colonial resistance, two important figures were arrested in Côte d’Ivoire and sent to Gabon: Sam, arrested in Guemou in Yakuba country, and another fighter. Mr. Amétier’s father approached Houphouët-Boigny to obtain the return of these resistance fighters’ remains.

Mr. Amétier’s father undertook a similar effort to obtain the remains of Cadio Amangoa. For us, Abouré, and for all of Côte d’Ivoire, Cadio Amangoa is seen as a lion, and he acted accordingly. I told my comrades from the FPI that the return of Cadio Amangoa’s remains was not a party matter but a national one. I then arranged for Mr. Amétier to organize an official ceremony so that all Ivorians could honor this fighter.

Mr. Mayor, thank you for being here. I know many people in Bonoua, like Oba Albert, with whom I spent two years in prison. Although he was from the PDCI and I from the FPI, we were friends. I also know Venance and others that people like Cadio Amangoa must be honored and continue to be honored.

I am here on July 14, a date that those over 30 must remember. Here in Bonoua, my first podium was set up for an FPI meeting on July 14, 1990. It was the first meeting organized after multipartism was granted on April 30. The FPI, PIT, USD, and the Socialist Party of Mauritania Bamba decided to hold a joint demonstration in Korhogo. But after this joint demonstration, the first FPI-only meeting was held here, in Bonoua.

I salute Mathias, who is a brave man. The day we were tear-gassed here, he protected me by taking me to the home of the current deputy’s father, Écra, for shelter. The battle was tough that day, and I remember it as if it were yesterday.

Someone asked Écra if Gbagbo often comes to Bonoua. Although I am usually in Abidjan, I couldn’t come earlier due to my busy schedule. Écra asked me to come, and I told him that I had to first go to the West, where the suffering was more intense. What happened in the western region was almost genocide, with over 1,000 deaths in a single day. That’s why I am here now, to greet you.

My dear friends, we must organize ourselves so that this government is no longer in place in 2025. I use this platform to tell all politicians that I open my arms to those who wish for a clear and healthy coalition to defeat this government. However, loyalty and honesty are essential in this endeavor.

To succeed in the elections, we need identity cards. Between 2000 and 2010, I ensured that identity cards were free. I ask the State to make a financial effort for the poorest and provide them with free identity documents.

I know a friend whose electricity bill increased from 300,000 to 900,000 francs. This is the result of a bad government. Life is expensive, and even to come here, we had to pass through costly tolls.

There is also the problem of water poisoning by cyanide and mercury used in gold mining. This poisons rivers and kills children and women who wash clothes there.

In conclusion, I came here to greet you, not to campaign. I will return for that. In the meantime, I thank you all, and I especially thank Mr. Mayor and those who participated in this meeting. Never regret having fought, because those who fight are honored. May God bless Côte d’Ivoire.

Le discours de Laurent Gbagbo à Bonoua

Français

### Discours du Président Laurent Gbagbo à Bonoua : Un Événement Marquant à Bonoua

Amis, chers frères de Bonoua, je vous salue et vous remercie. Je salue d’abord les gens de ma génération, puisque je viens d’être intégré à une nouvelle génération. J’ai d’abord été dire bonjour au roi avant d’arriver ici. À vous tous, connus et inconnus, je vous salue.

Monsieur le Maire, Monsieur Amétier, j’ai participé à une cérémonie avec votre père, qui a accompli un travail remarquable en bousculant les autorités pour rapatrier les restes de résistants ivoiriens. À l’époque de la résistance anticoloniale, deux figures importantes furent arrêtées en Côte d’Ivoire et envoyées au Gabon : Sam, arrêté à Guemou en pays Yakuba, et un autre combattant. Le père de Monsieur Amétier s’est adressé à Houphouët-Boigny pour obtenir la restitution des restes de ces résistants ivoiriens.

Monsieur Amétier, père, a fait une démarche similaire pour obtenir les restes de Cadio Amangoa. Pour nous, Abouré, et pour toute la Côte d’Ivoire, Cadio Amangoa est perçu comme un lion, et il a agi en conséquence. J’ai dit à mes camarades du FPI que le retour des restes de Cadio Amangoa n’était pas une affaire de parti, mais une affaire nationale. J’ai donc fait téléphoner à Monsieur Amétier pour organiser une cérémonie officielle afin que tout le peuple ivoirien puisse honorer ce combattant.

Monsieur le Maire, merci d’être ici. Je connais beaucoup de personnes à Bonoua, comme Oba Albert, avec qui j’ai fait deux ans de prison. Bien qu’il soit du PDCI et moi du FPI, nous étions amis. Je connais aussi Venance et d’autres, et je sais que des gens comme Kadio Amangoa doivent être honorés et continuer à l’être.

Je suis ici un 14 juillet, date que ceux ayant plus de 30 ans doivent se rappeler. C’était ici, à Bonoua, que ma première tribune fut dressée pour un meeting du FPI le 14 juillet 1990. C’était le premier meeting organisé après que le multipartisme fut accordé le 30 avril. Le FPI, le PIT, l’USD et le Parti Socialiste de Mauritanie Bamba avaient décidé de faire une manifestation commune à Korhogo. Mais après cette manifestation commune, le premier meeting propre au FPI eut lieu ici, à Bonoua.

Je salue Mathias, qui est un homme brave. Le jour où nous avons été gazés ici, il m’a protégé en m’amenant dans la maison du père du député actuel, Écra, pour m’abriter. La bataille a été rude ce jour-là, et je m’en souviens comme si c’était hier.

Quelqu’un a demandé à Ékra si Gbagbo venait souvent à Bonoua. Bien que je sois souvent à Abidjan, je n’ai pas pu venir avant car les programmes sont chargés. Ékra m’a demandé de venir, et je lui ai répondu que je devais d’abord aller à l’Ouest, où les souffrances étaient plus intenses. Ce qui s’est passé en pays ouest est un quasi-génocide, avec plus de 1000 morts en une seule journée. C’est pourquoi je suis venu ici maintenant, pour vous saluer.

Mes chers amis, nous devons nous organiser pour que ce gouvernement ne soit plus en place en 2025. Je profite de cette tribune pour dire à tous les hommes politiques que j’ouvre les bras à ceux qui souhaitent un rassemblement clair et sain pour battre ce gouvernement. Toutefois, il faut être loyal et honnête dans cette démarche.

Pour réussir aux élections, il faut des cartes d’identité. Entre 2000 et 2010, j’avais fait en sorte que les cartes d’identité soient gratuites. Je demande à l’État de faire un effort financier pour les plus pauvres et de leur fournir des documents d’identité gratuitement.

Je connais un ami dont la facture d’électricité est passée de 300 000 à 900 000 francs. C’est le résultat d’un mauvais gouvernement. La vie est chère et même pour venir ici, nous avons dû passer par des péages coûteux.

Il y a aussi le problème de l’empoisonnement des cours d’eau par le cyanure et le mercure utilisés dans la recherche d’or. Cela empoisonne les rivières et tue les enfants et les femmes qui y lavent leur linge.

En conclusion, je suis venu ici pour vous saluer et non pour faire campagne. Je reviendrai pour cela. En attendant, je vous remercie tous, et je remercie spécialement Monsieur le Maire et ceux qui ont participé à cette rencontre. Ne regrettez jamais d’avoir lutté, car ceux qui luttent sont honorés. Que Dieu bénisse la Côte d’Ivoire.

Ivory Coast: Africa’s Most Dynamic Economy (Documentary)

Business, Economy, Finance, Politics

(Arte, 9 août 2023) Delighted to be with you for this new episode of “Dessous des Cartes”. We start this show in Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire. Abidjan, nicknamed “Baby”, is a booming, bustling, polluted, and chaotic city. A colossal metro project is underway after countless delays. Abidjan also has one of the most important ports on the continent and an airport that handled 2 million passengers in 2021. The Plateau district, known as the African Manhattan, the beaches, and the beautiful houses of Cocody. Côte d’Ivoire, or the land of elephants, the animal and its emblem, would, according to the Prosperity Index, be the country that increased its prosperity the most in the world between 2011 and 2021. According to another ranking, it is the happiest country in West Africa. Of course, without underestimating the structural problems that Ivorians are far from having all overcome—centralism and political clientelism, inequality, regional insecurity—we wanted to visit this Africa of possibilities. Let’s get out our maps, and here is Côte d’Ivoire, this West African country located on the western part of the Gulf of Guinea, bordered on the south by the Atlantic Ocean. Côte d’Ivoire is surrounded by three Francophone countries: Guinea, Mali, and Burkina Faso, and on its flanks, two Anglophone countries: Liberia and Ghana. Covering an area of 322,500 km², the Ivorian territory resembles a quadrilateral split in two, with plateaus in the north and plains in the south, with a more mountainous terrain in the west.

### Climate and Geography
In terms of climate, Côte d’Ivoire is also divided into two. In the south, below the capital Yamoussoukro, the climate is equatorial and very humid, whereas the north has a dry tropical climate with generally higher temperatures. Consequently, the south is the territory of the forest, even though its surface area has significantly decreased. The primary forest has almost disappeared outside of national parks like Taï or Banco in the heart of Abidjan. The north, meanwhile, hosts a savannah landscape with vast expanses of grasslands and scattered trees. In this northern half of the country, you mainly find cereal fields such as millet, sorghum, and cotton. Over the past 20 years, cashew orchards have developed, making Côte d’Ivoire the world’s largest producer today. In the southern half, two major export crops dominate: coffee and, especially, cocoa. Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer of cocoa beans, accounting for 45% of global production. This raw material alone accounts for 15% of the national GDP. In addition to these large-scale intensive crops, there are other crops such as bananas, pineapples, and palm oil. Côte d’Ivoire also benefits from a rich subsoil with gold mines, iron mines, some bauxite, diamonds, manganese, nickel, and since the 1980s, oil. Although the share of petroleum products in Ivorian exports has remained modest, the company ENI discovered a deep-water deposit in 2021 estimated at 2 billion barrels, equivalent to about a quarter of Angola’s oil reserves.

### Human Geography and Demographics
Côte d’Ivoire is also a country with a complex human geography. The official language of its 22 million inhabitants is French, but there are over 63 ethnic groups spread across four regional linguistic groups: the Akan, the Gour, the Mandé, and the Kru. The Republic of Côte d’Ivoire is also a multi-religious country, with 42% Muslims, 34% Christians, and a significant proportion of animists. The structure of Ivorian society has evolved considerably since the 19th century. In 1902, Côte d’Ivoire was integrated into French West Africa, marking the beginning of development based on the exploitation of coffee, forests, cotton, and especially cocoa, an economy that relied on labor from the entire region. In 1960, Côte d’Ivoire became independent, but this immigration policy continued under President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who had been a deputy and several times a minister of the French Republic, and who was himself a coffee and cocoa planter. In 1983, he even made his hometown of Yamoussoukro the new administrative capital of the country. Upon his death in 1993, he left behind a country weakened by years of personal power, the fall in commodity prices, and the structural adjustment plans of the IMF and the World Bank.

### Political History and Economic Development
In 1995, Henri Konan Bédié, supported by France, was elected but implemented a xenophobic doctrine called “Ivoirité” to exclude his opponents, feeding discontent in a country where foreigners and descendants of foreigners are numerous. As a result, Côte d’Ivoire gradually plunged into civil war. In 2002, a coup attempt against then-President Laurent Gbagbo divided the country in two: the rebellion supported by Burkina Faso controlled the north, and the presidential camp controlled the south. It wasn’t until March 2007 that President Laurent Gbagbo and former rebel leader Guillaume Soro signed an agreement leading to the country’s reunification and the organization of elections. In 2010, Alassane Ouattara won these elections, but Laurent Gbagbo refused to relinquish power. In 2011, after violent clashes and the intervention of French forces and UN peacekeepers, Gbagbo was arrested and charged by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. However, in 2021, Laurent Gbagbo returned to Ivorian soil after his acquittal by the ICC.

Despite the civil war and persistent North-South inequalities and a precarious security context in the region, Côte d’Ivoire’s macroeconomic indicators have been favorable, with an average GDP growth of 8.2% between 2012 and 2019. After the civil war, Côte d’Ivoire returned to strong growth, even maintaining positive growth at 2% despite the COVID-19 pandemic, rising to 7% in 2021. These performances were made possible by a policy of major works throughout the country. Signs of these changes include the renovation of the University of Abidjan and the inauguration of a third bridge over the Ébrié Lagoon, the Henri Konan Bédié Bridge, in the economic capital in December 2014. In the north, the city of Bouaké, which was the rebels’ capital during the civil war, has been transformed with the reconstruction of economic infrastructure like its grand market and the redevelopment of its surroundings. The ports of San Pedro and Abidjan, essential to the country’s economy, have also undergone extension and modernization projects. The main downside is an inflation rate that reached an average of 5% in January 2023, mainly due to rising food prices. More importantly, Côte d’Ivoire remains marked by significant disparities geographically, always between the North and the South, with the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire concentrating 80% of economic activity and 21.7% of the Ivorian population. Socio-economically, the country ranked 159th out of 191 in the 2021 Human Development Index defined by the United Nations Development Programme.

### Security Concerns and Foreign Influence
In this context, Côte d’Ivoire has not escaped the geographic expansion of the jihadist threat in the Sahel, particularly in southern Mali and southwestern Burkina Faso. In 2015, a cell linked to the Ansardine group operating on its northern border was dismantled following joint operations between Mali and Côte d’Ivoire. However, a year later, in March 2016, the resort town of Grand-Bassam in the south was hit by a commando from Mali, resulting in the deaths of 19 people. On the night of June 10-11, 2020, Ivorian security forces were directly attacked in Kafolo. The attackers were repelled, but Abidjan was shocked. Other attacks using improvised explosive devices were also carried out by jihadist groups in northern Côte d’Ivoire between 2020 and 2021. In response, authorities have increased investments in the north of the country, particularly in the Comoé National Park. Militarily, France remains a key military partner of Côte d’Ivoire in 2023, with 900 soldiers stationed at Port-Bouët camp in the suburbs of Abidjan. However, instability in neighboring Burkina Faso undermines essential security cooperation in the north of the country. In 2020, the Ivorian and Burkinabe armies conducted joint Operation Comoé to dismantle terrorist bases attempting to establish themselves in the border area between the two states. But in early 2023, the Burkinabe army demanded the departure of the 400 French soldiers based in Ouagadougou as part of its search for new partners. Its security priority remains the north and east of the country, where the terrorist threat is concentrated. In Mali, the arrest in July 2022 of 49 Ivorian soldiers of the UN mission in Mali at Bamako airport by Malian authorities confirmed the persistence of degraded relations. These Ivorian soldiers, labeled as mercenaries, were sentenced before being pardoned in January 2023.

This concludes our journey in Côte d’Ivoire, the Africa of possibilities despite persistent problems—centralism and political clientelism, North-South division, significant inequalities, and a challenging security context. Côte d’Ivoire is courted by various influences, notably Russian. For example, cartoons identified as coming from the Prigozhin universe, the head of the Wagner militia, depicted triumphant African armies against the French invader thanks to Wagner soldiers. Countries cited in the cartoon include Mali, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire. To go further, check out “.

NB: IvoryCoast.ci does not necessarily share the view of Arte. They were published to show another perspective of the country. The discussion is open and you are invited to share your opinion with our readers

Germany’s First Africa-Born MP Quits After Years of Racial Abuse

International

Investigations led by Firstpost America show (video) that Germany’s First Africa-Born MP Quits After Years of Racial Abuse. Karamba Diaby, the first African-born member of parliament in Germany, has decided to not run in the next federal election in 2025. Just weeks after receiving a death threat, the 62-year-old politician announced his departure. While he has been the target of racist attacks and threats throughout his time in office, Diaby emphasised that this wasn’t the primary reason for his decision. However, in various interviews, he declared an increasingly hostile mood in the parliament and society. Diaby expressed his desire to prioritise spending more time with his family and to create space for younger politicians to take the lead.

| Firstpost America

Spain Win Euro 2024 – England Too Short Again

Sports

Un diplomate Italien interpelle les ambassadeurs européens sur la question africaine

International

Un diplomate Italien interpelle ses collegues ambassadeurs europeens lors d’une rencontre avec le ministre malien des AE .
Il parle des defis qui attendent *L’AES , fait une pédagogie panafricaine a ses collègues et crache La Vérité à la France* 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 qui détruit la Libye.

Un diplomate Italien interpelle ses collegues ambassadeurs europeens lors d'une rencontre avec le ministre malien des AE .
Il parle des defis qui attendent *L'AES , fait une pédagogie panafricaine a ses collègues et crache La Vérité à la France* 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 qui détruit la Libye. pic.twitter.com/lcYoKfGq70

— Fenelon MASSALA (@rfemassala) July 13, 2024