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Polished: The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro remains one of Côte d’Ivoire’s most recognisable architectural landmarks. the town’s deep cultural and historical significance. Photo: Wendy Mosetlhi
ABIDJAN

Côte d’Ivoire is more than a stopover. It’s a story you travel through

A seven-day journey across Côte d’Ivoire reveals cocoa towns, coastal escapes, living history and cultural traditions carried carefully across generations

  • Wendy Mosetlhi
6 min read
Fickle singer: Ivorian Aicha Kone hold a photo of herself and Niger’s leader General Abdourahamane Tiani. Photo: Issouf Sanogo/AFP
AES

Diva to junta: the singer praising West African putschists

How musical icon Aicha Kone has turned her back and microphone on the old political class in West Africa

  • Marietou Ba
3 min read
Local farmers gather dried cocoa beans to be weighed before selling them to merchants in a village outside of Kumasi, Ghana. (Photo by Jane Hahn/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
BUSINESS

Easter chocs may leave bitter taste

Chocolate products have become more expensive on the back of soaring cocoa prices, but there is not likely to be a shortage

  • Aarti Bhana
3 min read
A vendor sells vuvuzelas at the Adjame main market in Abidjan on January 9, 2024 ahead of the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP)
AFCON

Afcon is set to be a ball

The African showpiece never fails to entertain and this year’s tournament should be no different

  • Ozayr Patel
7 min read
West African leaders will not go through with a threat to sanction Mali for imprisoning 46 Ivorian soldiers
ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES

Mali avoids sanctions over detention of Ivorian soldiers

A Malian court last month sentenced the troops to 20 years in prison

  • Agence France Presse
2 min read
Guinea’s president Alpha Conde surrounded by soldiers.
ALPHA CONDE

Photos capture Africa’s mighty as they fall

Alpha Condé is not the first president to have his humiliation captured on camera.

  • Simon Allison
  • The Continent
2 min read
An agent of the National Institute of Public Hygiene (INHP) vaccinates a doctor against the Ebola virus, at the University Hospital of Cocody during a vaccination operation of health personnel after the first Ebola patient was brought in, in Cocody on August 16, 2021. – Ivory Coast began a roll-out of vaccinations against Ebola on August 16, 2021, after the country recorded its first known case of the disease since 1994, the health ministry said. “Health workers, close relatives and contacts of the victim” were the first to be vaccinated, getting jabs from 5,000 doses sent from Guinea, spokesman Germain Mahan Sehi said. (Photo by Sia KAMBOU / AFP) (Photo by SIA KAMBOU/AFP via Getty Images)
COTE D IVOIRE

Côte d’Ivoire starts Ebola jabs after first case in decades

Ivorian health workers had previously said that vaccinations of “targeted groups” had already begun on Sunday

  • Agence France Presse
2 min read
A soldier of the United Nations Operation in Ivory Coast (ONUCI) check weapons seized during the post-election political crisis in Ivory Coast at the military base in Abidjan, on July 12, 2012. The Ivorian government launched a new census of ex-combatants involved in the deadly post-election crisis of 2010-2011 and Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara promised to reform the army and to tackle the problem of ex-fighters, many of whom kept weapons. AFP PHOTO/ SIA KAMBOU (Photo by SIA KAMBOU / AFP)
ADAMA TOUNGARA

The European companies that armed the Ivorian civil war

AN OCCRP investigation reveals that Gunvor and Semlex brokered weapons-for-oil deals in early 2011 when Côte d’Ivoire was in crisis, despite a UN arms embargo

  • Khadija Sharife
  • Mark Anderson
  • Sana Sbouai
  • Mathieu Olivier
14 min read
Supporters of main opposition candidate, Cellou Dalein Diallo stand on a van at a campaign rally in Conakry on October 14, 2020. – The president of Guinea, Alpha Conde is bidding for a third term in office with the Presidential elections to be held on October the 18th, defying critics who say he forced through a new constitution this year enabling him to sidestep two-term presidential limits. (Photo by JOHN WESSELS / AFP)
AFRICAN UNION

We should not ignore Guinea’s constitutional coup

Citizens have for a year protested against the president seeking a third term in office despite a two-term limit. Many have been killed — and 90 more people died in this week’s…

  • Miriam Frost
5 min read
Cote D’Ivoire’s President Alassane Ouattara has confirmed his candidacy for re-election. Photo: File
AFRICAN UNION

Manifesto against the presidency for life in Africa

If we do not take care, presidents will make lawlessness the standard of our civic life. Let’s make sure it does not come to that!

  • Tierno Monénembo
  • Véronique Tadjo
  • Eugène Ebodé
4 min read
Supporters of Ivory Coast’s president hold placards picturing Ouattara and reading “ADO” (for Alassane Dramane Ouattara) on October 9, 2015 in Yamoussoukro. (Photo: Issouf Sanogo/AFP via Getty Images)
AFRICAN UNION

Alassane Ouattara: In the eye of Côte d’Ivoire’s perpetual succession crisis

His road to the presidency was anchored in contention and acrimony, and if his bid is successful, Alassane Ouattara will have ruled for two decades when all is said and done.

  • Mvemba Phezo Dizolele
  • Lauren David Seaman
8 min read
Speculation is rife that President Alassane Ouattara may end up seeking the third term he had earlier said he would not pursue.
ALASSANE OUATTARA

Côte D’Ivoire’s president has imperilled West African democracy

Alassane Ouattara has finally committed to stepping down after his second term, but leaves behind a dangerous legacy for the region

  • Louis Metcalfe
6 min read
Stuart Baxter resigns as Bafana Bafana coach. (Oliver Weiken/Getty)
AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS

Baxter goes from dead man walking to national hero

Baxter first surfaced in South African football when he took the national team job in 2004

  • Martyn Wood
4 min read
Prosecutors say there is a risk that if released now, Gbagbo and Ble Goude will refuse to return to face justice if the court later decides to overturn their acquittal. (XINHUA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
COTE D IVOIRE

ICC halts release of Ivory Coast’s Gbagbo

Prosecutors filed a last-ditch challenge late Wednesday to keep the pair behind bars while the ICC looks at an overall appeal

  • Danny Kemp
3 min read
Judges ordered the immediate release of the 73-year-old deposed strongman, the first head of state to stand trial at the troubled ICC, and his right-hand man Charles Ble Goude. (Peter Dejong/Pool via REUTERS)
COTE D IVOIRE

ICC acquits former Ivory Coast strongman Gbagbo

Judges ordered the immediate release of the 73-year-old deposed strongman

  • Agency
2 min read
Prosecutors have said that Gbagbo, the first former head of state to be handed over to the ICC, clung to power “by all means” in the world’s largest cocoa producer. (AFP)
ALASSANE OUATTARA

War crimes court to rule on release of Côte d’Ivoire ex-president

Laurent Gbagbo has spent seven years behind bars on charges of crimes against humanity

  • Jan Hennop
4 min read
The world’s largest cocoa producer, Ivory Coast has emerged from a period of civil and political unrest in 2010-11 in which 3 000 people died to recorded annual economic growth rates of nearly 10 percent. (Issouf Sanogo/AFP)
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE

Africa governance gains hampered by security, job fears — study

The annual Ibrahim Index of African Governance also pointed to a deteriorating business climate and poor job creation

  • Agency
3 min read
Ouattarra’s RDR liberal party last month voted to back the formation of a large ‘unified party’ with its allies but said there should be a primary to choose its candidate before the presidential polls.
AGENCY

Ally of Côte d’Ivoire president rejects plan for ‘unified party’

Transformation of the ruling coalition into a unified party has been a recurring theme in Ivorian politics over the past decade

  • Agency
2 min read
The world’s largest cocoa producer, Ivory Coast has emerged from a period of civil and political unrest in 2010-11 in which 3 000 people died to recorded annual economic growth rates of nearly 10 percent. (Issouf Sanogo/AFP)
CASHEWS

Ivory Coast cashes in on the cashew

From tiny harvests two decades ago, the West African country now holds the cashew crown, supplanting India as the biggest producer of the nut

  • Christophe Koffi
3 min read
The outcome of the ANC’s long-awaited KwaZulu-Natal conference was a win for the Thuma Mina crowd. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS

Sidelined Elephants dust themselves off

Out of the Cup of Nations, the young Ivorian team is now looking to Russia 2018

  • Yassine Khiri
3 min read