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| Africa: Subsaharan |
| Violence Deals Blow to Ivory Coast Economy & Beyond |
| 2004-11-23 |
| Burned, looted shops dot the commercial capital. European airlines have suspended flights. And only a few ships remain in what was one of West Africa's busiest ports. The latest outburst of violence in Ivory Coast has dealt a serious - and some say irreparable - blow to the world's top cocoa producer and regional economic powerhouse, chasing away many of the foreign business owners and managers critical to its development and stability. Ivory Coast accounts for 40 percent of economic production in French-speaking West Africa and is the site of two key ports. Its cocoa and coffee plantations provide employment to at least 4 million workers from impoverished neighboring countries; other sectors employ as many as 4 million more immigrants. The harm goes beyond Ivory Coast's borders. Instability here and in Sudan is having a "ripple effect" across Africa - frightening investors away from stable countries like Senegal and Mali, Anne Miroux of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development said Monday at a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #2 Why should West Africa be immune fromt the self immolation practiced by the rest of Africa. The continent has been in a long slow slide to oblivion since Jomo Kenyatta and the Mau-Mau. Go down the list: Zimbabwe, Angola, Uganda, Rwanda, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Congo Republic, et.al. and think of the common elements in each picture: Corruption, tribalism, society alternating between extreme dictatorship and anarchy, famine, hordes of ineffective NGOs, brutality, disease, squalor, poverty, hopelessness. Africa has been committing suicide by degrees for the last 50 years. Add AIDS and the UN to the picture and there is no hope at all. |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-11-23 3:51:06 PM |
| #1 Thank you, France. |
| Posted by: someone 2004-11-23 3:28:43 AM |