Abidjan
Ivory Coast says chocolate traders failing to pay farmers living wage premium
Major chocolate traders in Ivory Coast are failing to pay a $400-per-tonne premium on beans aimed at curbing farmer poverty, the country’s cocoa regulator said in a draft letter seen by Reuters on Friday. The Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) said companies including Mondelēz International Inc(MDLZ.O) were offsetting the Living Income Differential (LID) by offering a negative country differential – normally a premium of 70 to 150 pounds ($99-$212) per tonne to reflect the quality of Ivory Coast’s beans. Mondelēz said it was paying the full LID. “(Mondelēz) does not offer or have any influence over negative country differentials,” the company said in a statement to Reuters. Buyers have been pressing for the country differential to be turned into a country discount, so farmers receive the extra...
CAF president launches pan-African inter-school championship with own $10 million
The South African billionaire and president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Patrice Motsepe, on Tuesday in Abidjan announced that he will personally finance the pan-African inter-school football championship, which will be launched “between 2022 and 2023”, in collaboration with FIFA. The donation will amount to US$ 10 million and will come from the foundation that bears his name. On a visit to Côte d’Ivoire, the CAF president recalled that the future competition will concern boys and girls aged between 12 to 14 years and will take place “first at national level via national associations, then at zonal level with the organization of six regional tournaments which will serve as qualifying rounds for the final tournament”, according to CAF’s governing body. Initially, pilot na...
Liberia launches new national carrier ‘Lone Star Air’
Liberian President George Weah on Friday inaugurated a new national carrier for the West African country, named Lone Star Air, about 30 years after the country’s previous airline went bust. Speaking at a ceremony at Liberia’s international airport, near the capital Monrovia, Weah said the new airline would “connect our country to our region and to the world”. “It is my dream, my hope and my ambition that we will very soon see Lone Star Air, the wings of Liberia, flying our flag in international skies, shining so brightly,” said the footballer-turned-president. Liberia’s flag bears resemblance to the flag of the United States but features one star instead of 50. The country was founded in the 19th century with US support as a home for freed American slaves, whose descendants have a long his...
Plateau United coach seeks financial support to achieve Champions League Semi final target
Plateau United coach Abdu Maikaba has stated that they need the required support to meet the target of semi-finals of the 2020/2021 CAF Champions League. The former Akwa United coach admitted the 2017 NPFL champions will require even more backing and hard work to realize their last-four ambition in the competition – a feat which was last achieved by a Nigerian club – Sunshine Stars in 2012. “They (Plateau State Government) gave us enough support, but actually, we have to work very hard to achieve that target,” he said. “Getting to the semi-finals (of the CAF Champions League) is not an easy task, and we have to work very, very hard. We have to be given all the necessary support to get there. “In terms of personnel, like the replacement of players, I have to get the support to make the repl...
Ivory Coast bars public protests until September
Ivory Coast has banned all outdoor protests until 15 September, according to a statement Thursday issued after deadly clashes ahead of presidential elections in October. The cabinet late Wednesday “decided to suspend protests in public areas, authorising them only in enclosed spaces… until 15 September,” the government said in a statement. The measure “draws the consequences of the impact, in human and property terms, from previous demonstrations and the risk that pockets of inter-community conflicts could open up,” it said. On 13 August, angry protests erupted in the economic hub Abidjan, and demonstrations in the central town of Daoukro turned to bloody ethnic clashes, after President Alassane Ouattara announced he would bid for a third term. Critics of Ouattara say the 78-year-old is on...
One dead in fresh Ivory Coast clashes over president’s re-election bid
vAt least one person was killed in clashes in Ivory Coast on Saturday in the latest violence sparked by President Alassane Ouattara’s controversial decision to run for a third term in October. The shooting death brings to four the number of people killed in the central town of Daoukro, a stronghold of former president Henri Konan Bedie, who is also a candidate in the election. Across Ivory Coast, at least six people have died and more than 100 have been injured in violence after Ouattara’s shock announcement. Tensions were high on Saturday in Daoukro, where clashes between supporters of Bedie and Ouattara began on Tuesday. The town’s main market and shops were closed and police were deployed all over. Armed with shotguns, clubs and machetes, young people from the village of Anoumabo rushed...
Ivory Coast’s Guillaume Soro faces war crimes lawsuit in France
File Photo Ivory Coast’s former prime minister Guillaume Soro, a rebel leader before he entered politics, is facing a lawsuit in France for war crimes, torture and murder, lawyers told AFP. The plaintiffs say the case is being filed in France because Soro has been living in the country since 2019. Late last month, he was handed a 20-year jail term in Ivory Coast for embezzlement, money laundering, and buying a mansion in the West African country’s main city Abidjan with public money. The Abidjan court fined him nearly seven million euros ($7.6 million), ordered the confiscation of his Abidjan home and barred him from civic duties for five years, which effectively eliminates the 47-year-old from contesting presidential elections due in October. Soro denies all accusations. The latest lawsui...
