Johannesburg — Continuing insecurity, tension and confusion in Cote dIvoire over the fate of the peace process and failure to end the five-month civil war, have triggered a decision by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to quit Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire's commercial capital.
Citing security concerns in a Saturday statement, the AfDB said the decision by the UN to increase its risk rating for Cote dIvoire, to phase four, had prompted its own decision to implement the emergency plan agreed by the board of directors, under which staff will be transferred out of the city.
It was unclear how many of the 1,000 AfDB staff would leave Abidjan. But the presence of the prestigious continental development bank, whose high rise tower block is a symbolic landmark in the city, helped to ensure Cote dIvoires status as the leading Francophone economy in the region. The country's reputation as a stable and prosperous nation was shattered at the start of the war last October.
Bank and diplomatic sources say the axe has been hovering over the AfDBs continued activities in Cote dIvoire, since the country suffered its first military coup detat in December 1999. Tunis has for several years been mentioned as an alternative location for the banks headquarters.
But insiders report that the banks chief, Omar Kabbaj, a Moroccan, has been under pressure from Gbagbos government not to move the prestigious AfDB from Abidjan. Observers say any such decision would not only be a blow to the city and the Ivorian authorities, but would likely open the floodgates for other institutions to quit what for the past three decades has been the commercial heart of French-speaking Africa.
AfDB governors met in December and agreed to reassess the Cote dIvoire security situation in two months. A February 15 governors consultative committee meeting is scheduled in neighbouring Ghana to review the banks operations.
