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United States Embassy (Abidjan)

Côte d'Ivoire: American Embassy's National Daily Press Review

7 September 2007

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This daily press review is compiled by the Information Section of the Public Affairs Office of the American Embassy in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

1. Friday's Ivoirian press is preoccupied by medical doctors' nationwide indefinite strike, which has crippled activities at the government's hospitals. Laurent Dona Fologo, an Ivoirian leading political figure, is also in the limelight, a day after he spoke on current issues in Cote d'Ivoire during a public conference held in Abidjan. Papers reputed to be very critical of the current regime devote their front page to what they call "a scandal in the Ivoirian cocoa sector."

2. "Money laundering and illicit enrichment: CIA is chasing the Re-founders," says a banner headline that runs across Le Jour Plus, a daily close to the opposition. Citing reliable sources, the paper suggests that, "A factory, which was acquired a few years ago by Ivoirian authorities in the United States with the purpose to transform cocoa products exported from Cote d'Ivoire, has never grinded a single kilogram of cocoa."

3. The paper alleges that, "American authorities have now discovered that the project was designed to mask a money laundering business." It goes on, "The Coffee and Cocoa Regulation Funds (FRC) has simply embezzled money of poor farmers, who continue to pay the heavy price of their ignorance." It also tells readers that, "Guy-Andre Kieffer, the French-Canadian dual national journalist, disappeared in Cote d'Ivoire while he was investigating many malpractices in the cocoa sector."

4. Moreover, Le Jour Plus, questions the rationale behind the project of "setting up a chocolate industry in a country, across the Atlantic Ocean, instead of Cote d'Ivoire, where it could generate resources and employment, which are essential factors of economic growth."

5. With a picture of the Ivoirian president on its front page, Le Patriote, a daily close to the opposition RDR party, writes, "Gbagbo in a mess!" Quoting RFI - Radio France Internationale -, the paper says, "His men have defrauded American pensioners of 20 billions Francs CFA. The FRC is being investigated for money laundering."

6. "Chocolate factory's scandal in the US: The Ivoirian cocoa sector involved in a money-laundering deal," says a banner headline in Nord-Sud Quotidien, a daily close to the opposition. Another prominent headline in Le Nouveau Reveil, a daily close to the ex-ruling PDCI-RDA party, reads, "Purchase of cocoa-processing factory in the US: 30 billions Francs CFA, which were to be transferred from Abidjan to Washington by the FRC, vanished."

7. The other major headline on the front page of the paper says, "Fologo tells Gbagbo the truth," as the President of Economic and Social Council denounces "corruption, FESCI, insecurity, high cost of living, treachery during exams, and nepotism," reports Le Nouveau Reveil. Fologo, who was speaking yesterday during a conference in Abidjan, is quoted as saying, "There is a need to stop those who have taken hostage the future of the country."

8. "Fologo attacks FESCI," writes Le Matin d'Abidjan, a daily close to Gbagbo. "We must make ensure that students' syndicates become a body that defends the interests of the students and that is more preoccupied by their study instead of playing politics that they would have more time to do after their study."

9. "Time for change has come," Le Courrier d'Abidjan quotes Fologo as saying. The Ivoirian political figure also described FESCI as "a lasting bomb," and called on the country's authorities to do something "to stop the wave of corruption that is decaying the social fiber."

10. While "hospitals in Cote d'Ivoire are close down as a result of doctors' strike," Le Temps, a daily close to Gbagbo, sounds the alarm saying, "People are dying." According to the privately-owned daily L'inter, "The Ivoirian Health Minister, Allah Kouadio, has proved his incapacity to resolve the problem."

11. A front-page story in 24 Heures, a daily close to the opposition, says, "The minister is negotiating with leaders of the trade union of Ivoirian doctors to demand them to soften their position by ensuring minimum services in the hospitals."

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