Calm Returns But Mutiny Simmers In Ivory Coast Rebel City
ABIDJAN (Dow Jones)--Calm returned and business was as usual in Bouake, the main city in northern Ivory Coast, the morning after mutinous combatants of the rebel New Forces' movement blocked the city's main road to the South to push for payment of a demobilization bonus, residents said. "It is calm in town, the combatants are meeting with their commanders who are trying to convince them to cam down," said Kader Diaby, talking by telephone from Bouake, 300 kilometers north of Abidjan. He said the outcome of the meeting was uncertain because the leader of the movement was not attending, as demanded by the mutineers "They might resume their (mutiny)," he said. Another resident also said that for now business was as usual in the city, the headquarters of the New Forces' rebel movement which took control of northern Ivory Coast after a failed coup in 2002 and a brief civil war. Since the signing of a peace agreement, last year, rebel leader Guillaume Soro is prime minister of a government of national unity and some 26,000 rebel fighters are to be mobilized. The peace agreement includes payment of a demobilization bonus of 90,000 CFA francs ($215) per fighter as well as professional training. The mutinous fighters, who ransacked Soro's Bouake offices on Monday, want a bonus of 5 million CFA francs. For now, the unrest is unlikely to slow cocoa trade and transport as Bouake is located just north of the cocoa belt in the world's top cocoa grower. Continuous unrest in the North can be yet another reason for postponement of the Nov. 30 presidential election, already overdue by three years and seen as indispensable for a return to lasting peace and stability.

Ivory Coast needs to fight graft to clear big debts - IMF
Fri 22 Aug 2008, 5:56 GMT
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast needs to clear arrears and improve governance if it is to reschedule debts to foreign governments and secure relief from some of its $14 billion foreign debt, the IMF said on Thursday. Resident International Monetary Fund (IMF) representative Philippe Egoume Bossogo told a news conference that the leading cocoa producer's external debts stood at 6.18 trillion CFA francs in April. Repayment arrears alone were more than 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in Ivory Coast, long West Africa's next biggest economy after oil giant Nigeria -- although neighbouring Ghana is quickly closing the gap after Ivory Coast's 2002-3 civil war. Bossogo said Ivory Coast needed to clear some of its debt arrears in order to reschedule its debts to the Paris club of sovereign lenders, and subsequently qualify for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. The HIPC programme is led by the IMF and its sister institution, the World Bank, as a way of clearing debts for poor countries that meet governance and other standards and to free up money to fund development rather than debt service. "There is work to do in the field of governance in the cocoa and oil sectors, and we forsee audits of the Port of Abidjan and the BNI (National Investment Bank)," Bossogo said. Ivory Coast's cocoa sector has long been tarnished by suspicions of widespread corruption.
President Laurent Gbagbo, who is widely expected to stand in postwar elections due in November, has launched a probe into graft in the cocoa sector which has seen the top managers of several industry authorities arrested and replaced. Last week, five ministers were summoned to be questioned as witnesses in the ongoing investigation, which some cocoa exporters fear may disrupt the start of the coming October-March main crop season, during which the bulk of the annual harvest is produced.

08/22/2008 04:07:50
Cote d'Ivoire: Weapons Reported Missing at Powder Magazine in Yamoussoukro

BBC Monitoring / Text of report by Ivorian newspaper L'Inter website on 20 August

Kalachnikov weapons have disappeared from the main powder magazine of the barracks of the Republican Guard in Yamoussoukro. While some people are talking about only eight weapons, malicious gossip is giving rise to predictions. The fact remains that weapons have been reported missing and this is presently intriguing everyone in the camp where the suspicion is now generalized. The circumstances surrounding the disappearance that is still giving rise to questions, is presently aggravating the suspicion within the elements at the barracks. According to the accounts of several soldiers, the offence committed was observed less than 10 days ago. This observation that was certified by elements of the gendarmerie, who had been dispatched to the scene, makes one believe that individuals came from the bushes surrounding the building that houses the powder magazine and that with the use of a ladder, they gained access to the interior Of the camp by breaking through the ceiling. A team that was sent by the army headquarters certified this observation after filming the traces of the burglary.
In fact, still according to the witnesses, the powder magazine that was attacked was handed over by the Republican Guard to the service in charge of the disarmament of the loyalist forces. Therefore it contained only weapons that had been "taken from" the loyalists within the framework of their disarmament and reintegration into their original forces. "It is not the powder magazine of the camp as such that was attacked. When a request was made to find a building to stock the weapons taken from the men to be disarmed within the context of the process to end the crisis, the weapons of the Republican Guard were transferred from this building to a secret place and the weapons taken from the men who had pulled back from the fronts were stocked there. It is somehow the powder magazine of the structure that is in charge of the disarmament that was burgled but in any case, it is dangerous and the perpetrators must be found," it was confided to us. For all the elements who agreed to share this information with us, one does not have to go far to look for the perpetrators of this action. "They are among us and the top hierarchy must strive to find them," one of them informed us, revealing that such losses of weapons are legion in our camps. "Each time and very often during the period of the national independence celebration, weapons get missing like this. Often, assault grenades and rocket launchers get missing," he specified. However, he put into perspective that this loss must not be ignored for, "no soldier is ignorant that the discontent within the army is intensifying presently." He explained that this discontent has its roots in the non-payment, up till now, of the outstanding balance of the food allowance that goes up to more than 2 million francs per soldier. "The top hierarchy must stop minimizing things and they should know how to face their responsibilities. The country risks being taken by surprise once again. Missions are presently touring the barracks to call for a revolt. We have already received them on several occasions but we cannot confide this to the top hierarchy because we ourselves could be considered as false soldiers and sanctioned. This umpteenth loss of weapons confirms the rumours of a mutiny announced for the end of August or early September, if our money is not paid by then," he warned. While waiting to appreciate things at their true value, the building serving as the powder magazine, formerly isolated without a guard, has now been placed under high surveillance as demanded by the army headquarters. The chief of defence staff, Philippe Mangou, who has just begun a tour of the barracks, is expected this very week in Yamoussoukro where he will certainly raise the issue of the loss of weapons with the local hierarchy.