India-linked mining companies have had less luck than their Chinese counterparts in breaking into the West African market, arriving later on the scene than Chinese companies. However, a handful have managed to snap up iron-ore concessions that were missed by other Asian competitors. Chinese companies are backing iron projects in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, while Indian mining companies have tried to get a foothold in Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Mali.

• Ouattara’s Republican Forces of Côte d’Ivoire (Forces Républicaines de la Côte d’Ivoire, FRCI) killed at least 95 unarmed people in Abidjan during operations in late April and May, when they sealed off and searched areas formerly controlled by pro-Gbagbo militia
• Most killings were point-blank executions of youth from ethnic groups generally aligned with Gbagbo, in what appeared to be collective punishment for these groups’ participation in Gbagbo’s militias.
• …[M]id- and high-level commanders had been at or near the place where some killings took place.
• Nearly every former  detainee [of the Republican Forces] described being struck repeatedly with guns, belts, rope, and fists to extract information on where weapons were hidden or to punish them for alleged participation in the Young Patriots, a pro-Gbagbo militia group.
• The Republican Forces also killed older men accused of housing or assisting the militia.

h/t to John Campbell’s blog.

…I am struck by the extent to which economists, at least when they are writing about poor people in out of the way places, seem to rely on half-baked ethnographic insights, the kinds gleaned from corridor talk at meetings and by talking with taxi drivers on the way in from the airport and bartenders in business-class hotel.

…[But] if his European and North American audiences are so deeply (and, it would seem, so easily) misled, why is [Collier] quick to presume that the “bottom billion” are rational actors? Mightn’t they, too, be resistant to the good sense purveyed by economists and other demystifiers?

Collier criticizes anthropologists for being “subjective.”  McGovern points to what he calls Collier’s subjectiveness, highlighting places where Collier implies causation by presenting a correlation with no qualifications.  And McGovern provides a scathing critique of a chapter Collier has on Cote d’Ivoire.  (McGovern has a book coming out on Cote d’Ivoire.)  McGovern concludes:

…one productive division of labor would have economists identifying the surprising correlations in cross-cultural economic phenomena and anthropologists explaining them, political scientists may be able to do both parts of this process in house.

In recent years, the West has taken a turn towards greater informality, but in Ivory Coast, he/she who can dress smartly, does (it shows you can afford not just the actual suit and tie itself, but the air conditioned environment needed to keep cool in the tropics).

[T]here’s a broad consensus of opinion in favour of reforms, and reforms that would see more state involvement (including from the World Bank, after having earlier supported the 1990′s liberalisation programme). All the main presidential candidates favoured some sort of step back to state control.

[...]

[I]t’s not the fixed price per se that gives more income to farmers, but governance. Orla Ryan makes a strong case in her new book on West African cocoa, that it was only with the democratic process in Ghana, when cocoa farmers were taken seriously as a constituency (because their votes counted), that they were suddenly offered a far greater share of the world price.

Everybody says this man is an evil thug who needs to go.  That’s not true.  He’s a Christian, he’s a nice person, and he’s run a fairly clean operation in the Ivory Coast.

That’s Pat Robertson–who has in the past defended and been engaged in business activities with Charles Taylor–on Laurent Gbagbo.  The full video, which is even more infuriating than this quote, is here.

H/t to Moved 2 Monrovia.

For some months, the presidential camp has been seeking military support from Angola.  In March 2009, the Angolan defense minister, Kundi Paihama, paid an official visit to Cote d’Ivoire.  At the end of his stay, the two countries agreed that they would soon sign a defense agreement and appoint experts to look at how it might work.  Besides this promise of a military agreement, there have been frequent trips to Luanda by Bertin Kadet, the defense advisor to the president and also his nephew.

However, since Gbagbo may still reject any offer, the Security Council should immediately authorise military action to ensure the protection of the population by UNOCI or other authorised forces[...]

Unfortunately, UNOCI appears overwhelmed by the situation. Intimidated by constant harassment from Gbagbo’s camp, UNOCI is unable to implement its mandate to protect civilians subjected to violence or the threat of violence. The UN’s posture in the country must change, and UNOCI must be required to use force when necessary to carry out its mandate effectively. [...]

Even with these essential measures taken, UNOCI might not have the capacity to intervene effectively to stop the civil war and ensure adequate protection should mass violence and ethnic cleansing break out. Preparedness for this all-too likely scenario is not only essential, but a fundamental responsibility of the Council and its Members. The Security Council should authorise an ECOWAS-led mission to take all necessary measures to ensure the protection of the Ivorian people.

That’s from a letter by International Crisis Group to the UN Security Council.

A boy watches as residents prepare to leave Abidjan from a bus station in Adjame March 20, 2011. (Luc Gnago/Courtesy Reuters)

Hat tip to Amb. John Campbell’s blog.