Diplomacy/Public
finances redress, The French Prime Minister expected in Abidjan today

L'Intelligent
d'Abidjan
– The French Prime Minister, François Fillon, is expected along the Ebrié
lagoon, this Thursday, 14 July 2011, for a two-day official visit. "The French
Prime Minister, François Fillon is on official visit in Côte d'Ivoire on 14 and
15 July », according to a press release from the Ivorian Prime Minister's
office. The press release said that François Fillon will be accompanied by a
high-level delegation composed of members of his government including François
Baroin, Minister of the Economy, Finances  and Industry, Henri Raincourt,
Minister of in charge of  Cooperation, parliamentarians and economic operators.
According to the text, the head of the French government will be met on his
arrival by his Ivorian counterpart Guillaume Kigbafori Soro, before meeting
President Alassane Ouattara on Friday 15 July to discuss reconstruction and
relaunching Côte d'Ivoire economy with some 100 companies.

 

Reconstruction of
the republican army/ Philippe Mugon (director of research at the Institute of
Research and International Relations and Strategies in Paris): "It is a huge
challenge"

Le Nouveau
Réveil
- Philippe Mugon, the director of research at the Institute of Research of
international relations and strategy in Paris, spoke yesterday on Onuci-Fm on
the challenges of reconstructing a republican army. 

ONUCI-FM:
At the head of the head is General Soumaïla Bakayoko
who led the former Armed Forces of the Forces Nouvelles. What do you make of
that?

Philippe Mugon:

I'm sure that one of the main priorities for Côte d'Ivoire is
establishing a national and republican army and this nomination could be a means
to build such an army. What is worrying in the case of Côte d'Ivoire is that the
head of state owes a debt to the Forces Nouvelles, to the Forces
républicaines.

Guillaume Soro is himself Minister of Defence.
It is obvious
that the rebuilding of a national army has to be done with maximum consensus
between the regular forces and the Forces Nouvelles. We know that there are
those who were corporals who now have much higher ranks. So, there is therefore
great difficulty in building an army which is at the same time legitimate,
republican when we know we know that Ouattara having won the election was
brought to pwoer with the help of the Forces Nouvelles, the United Nations Force
and Licorne. So what we should hope for is that these nominations lead to the
construction of an army. It is a major challenge in terms of national
reconstruction. So we must know what will be the responsibilities of the
military officials who are at the top of the army.  

ONUCI-FM: What
are the main challenges facing General Bakayoko?

Philippe Mugon:
The
challenges are how to ensure that those who were in the Forces nouvelles, such
as the zone commanders accept the current situation.
How do you
ensure that those who were properly trained accept them in high profile posts
that they are not even trained for. So it is actually a great challenges. We
just have to hope that the army will be a mixed bag, collective for build and
rebuild Côte d'Ivoire in national unit. Other challenges will be disarmament and
bringing peace to the different regions in Côte d'Ivoire. But it is obvious that
one of the major elements to become a country is through rebuilding a national
army.  (...)

 

Communiqué of the
Council of Ministers/The Government commits to the Herculean task of improving
the road network

Le Patriote
– Wednesday, 13 July 2011, from 10 to 11.45, a meeting of the Council of
Ministers was held under the chairmanship of his excellency Mr. Alassane
Ouattara, President of the Republic at the presidential palace in Abidjan.(...)
The Minister of Economic Infrastructure in colllaboration with the Minister of
Economy and Finance, the Minister of Planning and Development and the Minister
of Construction presented a plan on the urgent rehabilitation of the sanitation
and drainage in Abidjan.

 

Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Charles Konan Banny squeezed

L'Inter –
The Chairman of the Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Charles Konan
Banny is having problems launching the reconciliation train.
Due to lack of
action plan, material resources and available finance, the former Prime Minister
has to be content with going on the road while waiting for the text and funds.
 Faced with the pressing need of civil society organizations to play their role
in the reconciliation process, Banny had agreed to meet them in his office and
to share with them his vision and listen to their suggestions, while waiting for
the text defining his mission, the composition of the commission and its
prerogatives. For this listening phase which will last one month the chairman of
the commission has held 150 meetings or working sessions with several political,
religious and civil society groups, said his spokesman recently (...)

 

Financing of
youth projects: President Ouattara release 2 billion for the FNS

Le Patriote
– The fight against youth unemployment is one of the priorities of President
Alassane Ouattara. The government has just released 2 billion FCFA for the
National Solidarity Fund (FNS). This is what came out of a meeting which took
place at Immeuble Sciam between the Ministry of the Economy and Finance and
officials from this organization.  The 2 billion FCFA represents a breather
because it will go towards financing a number of youth projects.   (...)

 

Anarchic price
increases: The Government is massive clean-up

Fraternité-Matin
– The Ivorian Government is monitoring the cost of living like milk on the fire.
It is also getting ready to bring pressure to bear of dubious traders.  Faced
with the random increase on certain products, the State intends to take
appropriate measures to stop this. (...)

 

Having found a
safe haven/ Cdt Abéhi promises to hit at the Ouattara regime: "I'm coming for
the second round of the match"

Le Nouveau
Réveil -
Commander Abéhi Jean-Noël, former head of the Armoured Squadron of Agban, has no
intention of living in exile indefinitely and even less to be tried by an
Ivorian court. Before escaping a little more than a week ago, Abéhi spoke to a
group of elements who remain loyal to him. He gave them a message which left
none of them in doubt about his intentions: "I'm going but I'm coming back to
fight the second round of the match. (.....)