At the doctor’s office yesterday, I walked into an animated discussion in the waiting room. “Can you believe how crazy it is everywhere?” “I know! The Middle East and this earthquake in Japan. It’s hard to keep up.” I listened for a while and then asked: “Have you guys heard any news about Cote d’Ivoire?” “What’s that?” “Ivory Coast, they think there could be a civil war there.” “Oh, no, I hadn’t heard anything about that.”
Can you blame them?
This post has four parts:
1. What’s happening in Cote d’Ivoire right now?
2. Where is the media?
3. A call to action
4. Resources
What’s Happening in Cote d’Ivoire Right Now?
Quick background from International Crisis Group:
The [october election] was part of a peace process that began after the September 2002 rebellion and was endorsed by several accords, the latest the 2007 Ouagadougou Political Agreement that all candidates, including Gbagbo, accepted and that set out compromises on organisation and security for the balloting. Ouattara won the run-off with a margin of more than 350,000 votes over Gbagbo.
The UN certified that result, but Gbagbo used the country’s highest court to throw out votes arbitrarily so he could stage a constitutional coup. Since then, he has relied on violence and ultra-nationalist rhetoric to cling to power. Over 300 people have been killed, dozens raped and many more abducted and disappeared by security forces. ECOWAS and the African Union (AU) have recognised Ouattara as president-elect and asked Gbagbo to step down, but he is apparently prepared to resist to the end, even if it means throwing Côte d’Ivoire into anarchy, war and economic disaster with terrible consequences for the entire region.
Here are the most recent developments:
Gbagbo has once again cut power to the north. It was the same scenario as the last time [in February]; they come and turn it off when they wish,” the CIE worker told IRIN. “There seems to be no problem with the grid.” This is a humanitarian crime. (IRIN)
Muslims face growing attacks in Ivory Coast crisis. “Souleymane Sissouma became the third imam slain this month in an attack so brutal his family members went into hiding, too afraid even to attend his funeral.
Ouattara supporters also have been beaten to death with bricks, even doused with gasoline and burned alive. Cell phone videos of the horrors are traded on the street and broadcast on state television along with calls to arms.
Fueling the fire is a relentless campaign of what the U.N. has called “lies” and “propaganda” on Gbagbo-controlled state television. The Radio-Television Ivorienne (RTI) is referred to by some foreign journalists as TV Mille Collines, in reference to the radio station that encouraged the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
In one report aired last week, the anchorman smiled as he described a dozen alleged rebels killed by pro-Gbagbo soldiers in central Abidjan as “culled like little birds.” Graphic images of their bloodied bodies were interspersed with images of soldiers giving each other high five and cheering crowds.
“The future Gbagbo proposes for his country is war, anarchy and violence, with ethnic, religious and xenophobic dimensions,” wrote Louise Arbour, president of the International Crisis Group, in an open letter this week. (SF Gate)
Nearly one million flee Abidjan amid fears of war, U.N. says. Up to one million people have fled populated suburbs in Abidjan alone, said Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. “The massive displacement in Abidjan and elsewhere is being fueled by fears of all-out war,” Fleming said.
The latest exodus follows reports that thousands of youth have answered calls to join forces loyal to the incumbent leader, Fleming said. There are also indications that mercenaries from neighboring Liberia are arriving in the country, according to the spokeswoman. (CNN)
Côte d’Ivoire: Crimes Against Humanity by Gbagbo Forces. This article also documents crimes committed by opposition supporters. (Human Rights Watch)
Cote d’Ivoire’s Gbagbo Readying Rockets, Helicopter. (Afrique en Ligne)
In the west, the health and education sectors have been severely affected as close to 90 per cent of qualified medical staff and the majority of teaching staff are no longer reporting to work. A shortage of essential medicines, the breakdown of the cold storage chain and the absence of disease surveillance have raised the spectre of a serious health crisis for thousands living in the area. As a result of internal displacement, food security could be compromised for thousands of households, according to OCHA. (UN)
West Africa Lurches Toward War. As the world watches the tsunami in Japan and the uprising in Libya, another part of the world is on the brink of disaster. Is anyone paying attention? (Foreign Policy)
Where is the media?
Most of the above articles are not from major news outlets. The CNN article is not even a headline on the CNN World News page. Major news media personalities have been silent. With the exception of some European media, NPR in the US, and Al Jazeera, Cote d’Ivoire is truly becoming a forgotten humanitarian crisis.
I have been following #ivorycoast closely and it deserves far more coverage. Monday will try to do something – Anderson Cooper on twitter, February 25th.
That was the last time Anderson Cooper mentioned Cote d’Ivoire. A month ago.
Is the story not compelling enough? Has there not been enough victims? Does he lack graphic video footage? Here, Anderson, is a video of two supposed rebels being beaten and burnt alive as the police look on.
While it is irritating that Cooper projects an aura of all knowing compassion yet manages to thoroughly neglect a crisis that could destabilize all of West Africa, he is really no different from any other major news outlet when it comes to this story. His silence is indicative of the larger media phenomenon: sub-Saharan Africa is invisible.
Anderson Cooper works for CNN, and CNN, along with other large news organizations, reports on stories that they believe will engage their audience. Apparently Cote d’Ivoire is yet to become newsworthy.
Aaron Bady does a good job looking at the issue here:
It isn’t that “we” don’t want to understand; it’s that we don’t know how to see beyond the initial same-old-story-ness of this story, when we hear it. Which is why, I would suggest, we end up where we started: a sense that, because there is violence, we should pay attention to what is happening, followed by the discovery that there is no news there; just the same “turmoil in Africa” narratives we sort of quietly presume to be going on across the continent all the time, and nothing we can think anything new about.
But this post is not really about why the media is silent.
Call to Action
I was in Abidjan last fall, spending most of my time in the Yopougon neighborhood. My friends there are struggling. Faty and her family, who I lived with for a month, have essentially become imprisoned in their home. They are from the north and what’s worse, they live with a Malian family. Northerners and foreigners have become the principle targets for Gbagbo. Recent mentions of ethnic cleansing and Rwanda are very disturbing to me.
Even if it doesn’t amount to much, I need to do something. It involves your help.
Blog For Cote d’Ivoire
The travel blogging community recently did an excellent job of raising awareness for New Zealand. Their message: there was a devastating earthquake in New Zealand, but the country is open for business and needs your tourism. The campaign got a lot of people talking about New Zealand.
I propose something similar for Cote d’Ivoire. Regardless of whether you’ve been there or have been closely following the crisis, you can share information and encourage people to look into it and spread the word. Doesn’t even have to be a whole post. Just something to get the word out. Feel free to use this button:
Right click and save as.
If you are on twitter, link to your page or post and use the hashtag #blog4civ and I will retweet. At the very least, more people will become aware of the crisis.
Social Media
Speaking of twitter, it has been invaluable in finding and sharing information. Search for hashtags #civ2010 and #IvoryCoast. At the bottom of this post, I include a list of people you should follow. Here, I want to repost something from earlier:
Tweet @andersoncooper. Ask him: where is the story on Cote D’ivoire? Maybe he doesn’t know that 1 million people have fled Abidjan. Feel free to use my previous status to retweet. His facebook page, CNN’s facebook page. Click here to email his show.
Nick Kristof brought up Cote d’Ivoire several weeks ago and said he is “looking into going there.” Tell him he should. @nickkristof on twitter and facebook.com/kristof
You can also tweet: @cnn, @ac360, @maddow, @ariannahuff, @msnbc, @abc
Petition
Sign this petition to encourage members of congress to pass House Resolution 85.
That resolution calls for calls for “the United States to apply intense diplomatic pressure and provide humanitarian support in response to the political crisis in Côte d’Ivoire,” and demands that Laurent Gbagbo step down and cede power to President Alassane Ouattara. It also calls for “continued United Nations Security Council action to ensure that the democratic process is upheld,” along with human rights and humanitarian law. To that end, it also calls for the United States Government and other nations to assist in humanitarian aid and assistance to the growing number of refugees who seek to escape the increasingly dire situation on the ground in Côte d’Ivoire.
Find the petition here
The UN Security Council needs to do something. Encouraging signs from France, pushing this resolution. Now with precedent for intervention in Libya, there is no reason why the UN should not be more aggressive in Cote d’Ivoire.
Read this story from Corinne Dufka about the UN and international community.
Give
There are a number of NGOs in Cote d’Ivoire and many of them are struggling with funding.
– UNHCR – this goes directly to their Cote d’Ivoire page
– Croix Rouge / Red Cross (select Cote d’Ivoire from “Other Operations”)
– Oxfam
– Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors without borders
Talk to People
I have shared this on twitter, but have not posted it here. It is very troubling. I don’t consider Fox News a real (as in accurate or reliable) news source, but it is still astonishing to me that they don’t have an Africa section on their world news page:
The people I spoke with in the doctor’s office yesterday did not know where Cote d’Ivoire was. Honestly, it’s hard to fault them. Education system does a poor job. Media is just as bad.
Talk to people. When most people hear the story they may envision some kind of tribal bush warfare.
Let them know that Cote d’Ivoire was once an economic powerhouse. 40% of the world’s cocoa is produced here and Abidjan has a skyline that looks like this. These facts are significant in the sense that they challenge common perceptions of Africa.
I’m not naive. I know that the fate of Cote d’Ivore rests in much larger machinery, namely the AU, ECOWAS, and the UN, or within the hands of Ivorians themselves. But allowing Cote d’Ivoire some space in our attention span does not take much effort, and with added eyes and hopefully, more news coverage, there is a chance that there will be less humanitarian crimes and of those that are committed, they will be widely seen and the people responsible will be held accountable.
Resources
On Twitter:
Hashtags: #civ2010 and #IvoryCoast
@fakegbagbo
@dickinsonbeth
@IvoryCoastDemoc
@KirAfrique
@Sanders225
@ourmaninafrica
@annagueye
@Marie0531
@FatiUNHCR
@JoelleET
@jeanettemallet
@Doylebytes
@diabymohamed
@ScorpiusMaximus
@irinnews
@Camso2010
@swampcottage
@civ2010
@AFRICA_SAHEL
@Refugees
@texasinafrica
@shelbygrossman
@marticotivoir
@SenamBeheton
@nightsnake1975
@N2_language
@sroukoudazoa
@bzkdjc
@mamadouk2007
@kanazan
@brucebanter
@faicommahatma
@zoudiet
This is also a good list to follow – It has many of the people above on it.
If I’m missing people, let me know.
News round-ups:
– All Africa’s Cote d’Ivoire Blog including live twitter feed with #civ2010 and #IvoryCoast
– Excellent post and round-up from Linda Raftree here
– Alex Thurston with another Cote d’Ivoire round-up here
Latest from International Crisis Group: The security and humanitarian situation in Côte d’Ivoire is rapidly deteriorating. Civil war in the country has been reignited; we are no longer warning of the risk of war, but urging swift action to halt the fighting and prevent ethnic cleansing and other mass atrocity crimes. More here
Blogs
Crise en Cote d’Ivoire
Africa Rising
Thoughts and Travels in West Africa
Fake Gbagbo
Anna Gueye @ Global Voices
Hotel Ivory
If you want me to add something here, let me know at phil dot paoletta at gmail dot com.
Thank you so much for posting about this. I haven’t seen ANY coverage about the situation in Cote d’Ivoire outside of your blog. I’ll definitely go through the resources you provide and see what I can do to help.
Christy, thank you. Please spread the word!!! Coverage of this story will have to be from the bottom up.
Phil, I’ll do as much as I can. It’s heartbreaking… I can’t imagine being ignored by the rest of the world when my country is in the middle of humanitarian crisis. Thank you for bringing this up to attention.
Jill, Thank you!! It’s very sad and frustrating. The media should be able to multitask. Thank you for spreading the word on twitter. B well, Phil
I’m not as ignorant as probably most USers re. Ivory Coast/Cote d’Ivoire since I’ve always known generally where it is located on the west coast of Africa. However I did not know until a few months ago that it is the largest single source of cocoa in the world, and also that many of its trees are suffering from disease, likely due to their advanced age. (I and husband Paul are purchasers ~every 18 months of 50lb of undutched cocoa. We use it heavily for health purposes 🙂
Knowledge of the social strife in Ivory Coast is more recent for me, almost surely because it has not garnered a great deal of publicity even on the Internet, my main source of news. Much of this may stem from far less Internet usage by the Ivorians themselves – or in English – contrasted with what has been seen/read coming out of Arabic Africa to the north.
I suspect that there is also a lack of knowledge by most of those in western and central Africa of the large amount of information on the theory and methods of nonviolent protest to effect social change. Phil, I urge you to become familiar with the works of Gene Sharp (if you are not already). It is his many writings through his 80+ years – much of it from his early admiration for Gandhi – that inspired the leaders of the campaign that brought down Mubarak in Egypt.
There is nothing special or unique about the Arabic areas of Africa. Sharp writes in the first volume of his classic “The Politics of Nonviolent Action”:
“Even where subjects wish to alter the established order, they may remain submissive because they lack confidence in bringing about the desired changes. As long as people lack self-confidence they are unlikely to do anything other than obey, cooperate with, and submit to their rulers.”
Many of Sharp’s works are available in French (and many other languages too) and available through his website, AEienstein.org
Also a good recent article about him and his writings is at The Nation: http://www.thenation.com/article/159265/gene-sharp-nonviolent-warrior
So in addition to encouraging MSM to pay attention to Ivory Coast, and non-Arabic Africa in general, I urge you to spread the word to Ivorians themselves about *how* they can become confident in their own abilities to effect the desired changes they desire.
I look forward to following your blog to read of progress in the confidence-building among those in Ivory Coast/Cote d’Ivoire.
Hi Kitty,
Thank you for your comment. I am familiar with Sharp’s work and I respect it greatly. Many Ivorians, specifically the women opposition supporters, have been using nonviolent protest. The biggest problem right now though is that Ivorians have been turned on each other. Gbagbo has been inciting violence on state TV and his youth minister has called for people to join the army using very xenophobic rhetoric. On the other side Outtara supporters have formed militias that are trying to control neighborhoods.
I wish this was a case of the people united against Gbagbo, but unfortunately it has become a case of Gbagbo framing it as an ethnic/religious struggle. That’s why the situation is becoming scary. That’s why people have mentioned Rwanda.
Right now my friends can’t leave their home because pro-Gbagbo youth have set up roadblocks throughout their neighborhood. I don’t know if non-violent protest from either side would have the intended effect. Gbagbo is effectively saying on state TV 24h a day that Outtara supporters are terrorists, threats to the country and he is more or less inciting violence. Unfortunately a lot of people are listening. State TV is the only channel running. What do you think? Could Sharp’s ideas be put in play here? Where to start? And I don’t write those questions critically in anyway. I would love to hear your thoughts. I want to see this end as peacefully as possible.
Thanks, Phil, for your detailed reply which I’m responding to interleaved for best communication.
> Hi Kitty,
> Thank you for your comment. I am familiar with Sharp’s work and I respect it greatly.
Good to know this.
> Many Ivorians, specifically the women opposition supporters, have been using nonviolent
> protest.
Reports of this would be good to read and photos too if you have sources. Maybe interviews with these women are possible?
> The biggest problem right now though is that Ivorians have been turned on each other.
> Gbagbo has been inciting violence on state TV and his youth minister has called for people to
> join the army using very xenophobic rhetoric. On the other side Outtara supporters have
> formed militias that are trying to control neighborhoods.
Today I went back to the BBC Andrew Harding Blog entry Ivory Coast where I submitted a comment yesterday. My comment had been published and I read further down to ones more recent. A Peter Charles, whose wife is Ivorian, made a long comment with historical references over the past ~10 years and more with which I am not familiar. I would like to see others make comments who have personal knowledge of Ivory Coast and its relationship to France, and especially in regards to items Peter talks about. He was strong in his statement that civil war has been present in Ivory Coast for 8 years. “It began because Gbagbo said that he would not renew contracts with France for the exclusive sale of the Ivory Coast’s natural resources to France for a pittance.” Not having any knowledge of Ivory Coast beyond the little I stated earlier I am not able to comment on this but would like to know. However, the fact that the government controls trade anywhere is a problem for the people who live there since they in effect have no control over their own land (if they are even permitted to own it at all) production, whether agricultural, manufacturing or commercial. In this regard I urge the readings of George Ayittey, economist and native of Ghana, especially “Africa Unchained”.
> I wish this was a case of the people united against Gbagbo, but unfortunately it has become a
> case of Gbagbo framing it as an ethnic/religious struggle. That’s why the situation is
> becoming scary. That’s why people have mentioned Rwanda.
But a government leader is only one person – rarely getting out in the fields and streets himself to do anything – and his edicts/orders/laws are no more than words without enforcers, those willing to initiate physical harm on others. In a country or even major areas of it, the enforcers are a small percentage of the total population. Non-cooperation, non-voluntary association of any kind with enforcers, and even with those who physically and socially support the enforcers, is one of the many nonviolent methods described in the section “The Methods of Social Noncooperation” in Vol 2, “The Methods of Nonviolent Action” of Sharp’s major work, “The Politics of Nonviolent Action”. (I wrote an article aimed at North Americans almost 2 years ago, but its general principles really apply anywhere, “Tax/Regulation Protests are Not Enough: Relationship of Self-Responsibility and Social Order” – http://selfsip.org/focus/protestsnotenough.html )
> Right now my friends can’t leave their home because pro-Gbagbo youth have set up
> roadblocks throughout their neighborhood. I don’t know if non-violent protest from either side
> would have the intended effect. Gbagbo is effectively saying on state TV 24h a day that
> Outtara supporters are terrorists, threats to the country and he is more or less inciting
> violence. Unfortunately a lot of people are listening. State TV is the only channel running.
> What do you think? Could Sharp’s ideas be put in play here? Where to start? And I don’t write
> those questions critically in anyway. I would love to hear your thoughts. I want to see this end
> as peacefully as possible.
I think Sharp has said it best himself regarding what to do in specific locations. When asked he has deferred to the locals since they and not he know the particulars, including the recent and more distant history.
What I think needs to happen is for several (at least) very motivated Ivorians to *study* Gene Sharp’s works, especially the 3 volume, “The Politics of Nonviolent Action”. Much is available in French and what is not could also be translated into it by interested outsiders. Also, in conjunction with this study, translation of pertinent items of Sharp’s works or condensations of it into local dialects would be helpful to spread the ideas to large numbers of others who are not primarily French speaking (or in another language already with translations). His website http://www.aeinstein.org/ has pages for translated works.
Contact with Gene Sharp himself may be possible, though at 80+ while he still works he may be in great demand by others from groups currently striving to remove dictatorial regimes. Determining which methods have strongest likelihood to work where and when is something only those local and dedicated to nonviolence are capable of doing. It will not be easy and it will take time and patience. And determination to remain nonviolent is essential. And even then, as can be seen from interviews with Sharp, nonviolent victory is not guaranteed. (The linked Nation article above is very good.)
Phil, since you know many Ivorians and already have a respectful familiarity with Sharp’s works, you could play a significant role in getting his works into the hands of Ivorians who are motivated to nonviolently bring about a peaceful libertous society, which may not at all lie with following either of the two current big names in the news.
Hi Kitty,
Thank you for your comment.
There are reports about the women protesters. The last time they protested en masse, Gbagbo’s security forces opened machine gun fire on them. You can read and see video here: http://www.mayomo.com/95685-women-killed-at-protest-in-ivory-coast-raw-video . As a warning, the video is very graphic. There were interviews with some of the women after that protest, but most of them are scared and there hasn’t been another protest since. Most of them come from the Abobo neighborhood where it is estimated that one million people have fled. Last week a mortar shell was fired into a market area in Abobo, again killing women.
“Africa Unchained” is excellent. I read that after I started reading Emeka Okafor’s blog of the same name (http://africaunchained.blogspot.com/ – also excellent). I agree, the trade issue is huge. But the civil war is more complex than the contracts with France. The true catalyst was that Ouattara (now considered the rightfully elected president) was disqualified from running previously because his parents are from Burkina Faso. That was the spark that caused the first civil war or crisis. His disqualification stems from deep resentment, especially from those in parts of southern Cote d’Ivoire, of West African immigrants. The problem is there are a lot of immigrants in Cote d’Ivoire (first generation or otherwise) because the previous president invited them, telling them they could work on the cocoa farms.
You are right to say that Gbagbo is only one person, but he still garners a lot of support, even now. His youth minister Charles Ble Goude has been drumming up support for violence for months. Recently, he was enlisting youths, mostly young, unemployed and illiterate to join the army to fight the rebels (Ouattara supporters, many of them from the north, and many are from immigrant backgrounds). “Prospective recruits turned up at an army base in the main city, Abidjan, chanting slogans such as “the rebels will die.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12804728
So while some army members have defected because they don’t want to fight against Ouattara, the rightfully elected president, you now have thousands of youth joining the army and becoming armed.
Do you know about the history of the genoicide in Rwanda? It became so brutal because so many people became complicit in the killing. Radio Milles Collines the 24hr station that was running hate speach about the tutsis is in some ways similar to RTI state TV in Cote d’Ivoire. There was an RTI report recently in which a smiling anchorman was talking with images of dead rebels behind them and he literally said they were “culled like little birds.” This kind of talk and imagery is very dangerous.
I don’t know many Ivorians, but I do have some friends there. I will pass along what I can of Sharp’s work. I feel that some sort of intermediary step will have to be taken, however, for his ideas to work.
In the end, Ouattara should be the president. He was elected.
learned a ton from you post, sir! thank you!
Hey Caitlin! Cool, spread the word!!
Phil, I once pitched a story on something in Africa to a major news organisation in the UK. Editor said, “We get so many African rape stories, that our response tends to be ‘oh god, not another African rape story.” And we run more international coverage in our media than you do in yours.
The media apathy is because conflict and horror is not unusual in Africa. Which sucks. But news organisations and their readers value, well, novelty. Thanks for spreading the word on this, though.
Yep, I agree. I feel like this is a big part of the problem. There are compelling (if horrific) storylines here, though, that the media could pick up. I’m also hearing that a big problem is a simple lack of reporters on the ground and a lack of context for stories. There are lots of videos circulating, but not many interviews or reports about before and after. Step 1 is just getting more eyes on the ground.
Great job on getting the word out on Ivory Coast. I haven’t read anything that’s going on there in the news….only on your site. That’s sad. And while I also don’t consider Fox news that credible, I’m shocked they don’t have an Africa tab on their site… especially with Sudan and Somalia making it into the news so much lately as well. I’d love to help in any way I can and will definitely share your links!
Laura, thank you!!!! I’m with you about Fox News, it’s the 2nd largest continent!! And you don’t have a section for it?? Thank you for spreading the word about Cote d’Ivoire!
Hi Phil, it is very sad that Cote d’Ivoire is getting very little US media coverage. I guess it’s because it’s French speaking, in Africa, and there’s no oil there. I hope it doesn’t have to turn into another Rwanda before people pay attention. The US has effectively declared war on Libya and I doubt President Obama will do much about Cote d’Ivoire without public outcry. I think getting the media involved is a good plan.
Jennifer,
Those are definitely big reasons. I doubt the US would get involved, but hopefully the UN will pass a more aggressive resolution. Jamming the state broadcasting system would be very productive and it wouldn’t take much to do. Gbagbo’s days are numbered. This is clear now, with FN forces bearing down on Abidjan. The question is, what will his exit look like? I only hope that he does not attempt one last desperation move.