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Up to a 100,000 people are expected in the nation's capital, Yamoussoukro, along with French President Nicholas Sarkozy, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and more than 20 other heads of state for the ceremony - six months after November's election.
The streets have been patched up and swept clean, outdoor stages set up and 400,000 condoms are being handed out for an "investiture without HIV".
The Karamoko family, who are from the north of the country but live in the main southern port city of Abidjan, will be watching the investiture on television.
As for many families, an election that was meant to end a decade-long crisis with the country split between north and south, has left a trail of sadness.
Alassane Karamoko was burnt to death along with three neighbours, who were also from the north, in a taxi that was stopped by militia men looking for supporters of Mr Ouattara - seen by backers of former President Laurent Gbagbo as the candidate of northerners.
"With all that's happened, it's had an impact on all of us", said Mr Karamoko's brother, Lacina.
"But for a real reconciliation we need to put ourselves in God's hands and move forward with love and forgiveness so Ivory Coast can progress."
'Feeling of joy'
Abidjan's party district is hoping the scars of battle will not stop people from celebrating The family live in Yopougon, known as the party district of Abidjan, where people come in the evenings to the restaurants and nightclubs.
This was the last pro-Gbagbo area to fall and even though the guns have fallen silent, one does not need to look far to see the impact that the battle has had - there are bullet holes and rocket impacts every few metres.
But in Abobo, a pro-Ouattara area of Abidjan where thousands of residents fled attacks by pro-Gbagbo forces, the main market is now bustling. Mangoes and avocadoes are on sale and butchers can be seen cutting up meat.
"There are some who are still traumatised and struggle to recover from the shock," says Maimouna Fofana, a market trader who witnessed a shell landing on the local market in which some 20 people were killed.
"[But] life is really getting back to normal. Things are working, people have come back and get on with their business as if nothing happened. There's some fear, but we work and it's OK."
Market prices are still high due to informal roadblocks, but electricity and water supplies have been repaired in the city once hailed as the Paris of Africa for its high living standards.
Activity has also resumed at Abidjan's port, which was virtually deserted just a few weeks ago.
The port was secured by French soldiers towards the end of the battle for Abidjan, something that has left the government's major revenue earner intact.
FENGOLO, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - World leaders have lauded the inauguration of President Alassane Ouattara as marking the end of the violence in Ivory Coast, but villagers in the volatile, cocoa-growing west are much less sure.
Ouattara was invested as head of state on Saturday in front of 20 other national leaders and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, an event they hope will enable the former economic star of West Africa to recover from the worst turmoil in its recent history.
But in the rolling hills cloaked in tropical forest and cocoa trees near the border with Liberia, the local tensions that flared into war during Ouattara's bitter poll dispute with ex-president Laurent Gbabgo are far from resolved.
"For us, this war was never really about the election," said Diara Yakonda, chief of the Dioula half of Fengolo, a village divided in two by an ethnic feud over cocoa-growing land.
Ouattara's migrant Dioula tribe occupies the land on one side of the road cutting through Fengolo, while the indigenous Guere people, seen as pro-Gbabgo, live on the other.
"There was a conflict between Dioula and Guere long before the election. They want our land, but we'll never give it up," Yakonda said.
Alassane Ouattara is outright display of neo-colonialism. Ivory Coast Constitution defiler Alassane Ouattara = Injustice = No Peace in Ivory Coast!
Its now been six weeks since Laurent Gbagbo, the erstwhile president of Ivory Coast, emerged in his undershirt from a bunker beneath the presidential palace in Abidjan, ending a four-month standoff that claimed 3,000 lives and ground the countrys economy to a halt.
With its ports reopened and a new leader in place, Ivory Coast once West Africas most vibrant economy has begun to get back on its feet. But the country has been deeply wounded by its season of violence, and the effects of the turmoil are lingering.
In a key political display on Saturday, Mr. Gbagbos successor, Alassane Ouattara, was formally sworn in as the countrys fifth president. Twenty heads of state attended the inauguration, as did United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
This ceremony today is not about the victory of one side over another, but about rediscovered brotherhood and new beginnings, Mr. Ouattara told the gathered dignitaries in the capital Yamoussoukro, AP reported.
Meanwhile, nearly 200 miles away in the remote northern city of Korhogo, Gbagbo remained under house arrest in a villa guarded by UN peacekeepers and soldiers loyal to Ouattara. The former leader, who refused to relinquish his decade-long hold on the presidency after losing an election late last year, is being held for questioning over his role in the violence that gripped the country during the ensuing power struggle.
Its not yet clear whether Gbagbo will face any sort of trial in his home country, but it seems increasingly likely that he could face prosecution by the International Criminal Court. Earlier this month, Ouattara invited the ICC to look into the countrys post-election violence, saying that conducting such an investigation within Ivory Coast would risk running into all kinds of difficulties.
As the political dust begins to settle, life is slowly getting back to normal in Ivory Coast. Banks have reopened, schools are back in session, government salaries are being paid, and the ports are functioning again.
Critically, exports of cocoa Ivory Coasts most important cash crop resumed earlier this month. About 400,000 tons of cocoa beans had accumulated in warehouses since January, when Ouattara announced a ban on all exports in an attempt to cut off funds to Gbagbo, who still controlled the ports. The resulting drop in supply caused cocoa to hit its highest price since 1979.
PARIS The new Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara says he will tell the G8 summit on Friday that his war-torn country needs up to 20 billion euros ($28 billion) in aid over the next five years.
"We need between 15 and 20 billion euros for the next five years. That is how much my programme will cost," he added on France's Europe 1 radio station.
"I am hoping for a confirmation of their appreciation of democracy in Ivory Coast, to reduce poverty. We want Ivory Coast to put an end to this long period of economic agony and reconcile our people," said Ouattara, who is a guest at a summit in France with leaders of the world's eight most industrialised nations.
Ouattara, who was sworn in as president on May 21 after a bitter and violent post-election crisis, did not list all the nations he would ask for help.
But he said, "there is a price to pay and I am counting on the G8" to be a partner in Ivory Coast's development.
He said that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made assurances on debt reduction and suggested two billion euro in development assistance might be available.
"Of course, I will ask for a little more from the (US) president," Ouattara added.
"The G8 must help us because Ivory Coast was a case study," he said.
The UN, African Union and several foreign governments stood firmly behind Ouattara when his political rival Laurent Gbagbo refused to cede power after being declared the loser of the country's November vote.
Several top international officials said the standoff was a test for democracy in Africa and that an incumbent president must not be allowed to get away with altering the results of an election he clearly lost.
He explained his country's needs are particularly acute because Ivory Coast faces a seven percent reduction in growth this year brought on by the post-election crisis that left 3,000 dead, according to the new government.
Ouattara also chided Gbagbo for "spending more than one billion euros over the last seven years on weapons."
In the same interview, Ouattara said that he asked Sarkozy to maintain France's military presence in Ivory Coast.
The French force, known as Licorne, played an active role during the unrest in Ivory Coast, and even supported, along with UN peacekeepers, the effort by pro-Ouattara militias to arrest Gbagbo.
Ouattara justified the continued presence of French troops saying that to combat the threats of terrorism and drug tafficking Ivory Coast "needs a sophisticated intelligence system and France can give us this support."
Ivory Coast is still reeling from a post-electoral crisis that killed at least 3,000 people and displaced more than a million after former president Laurent Gbagbo refused to cede power to U.N.-certified winner of last November's election, Alassane Ouattara.
The Liberia office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says as many as 190,000 refugees from Ivory Coast fled to eastern Liberia, though registration and verification are still underway to obtain exact numbers.
The influx began late last year to Liberia's northeastern Nimba County where many refugees had familial and ethnic ties. It then shifted further south to Grand Gedeh and Maryland counties in April as fighters loyal to Ouattara swept through western Ivory Coast on their way to the commercial capital Abidjan.
More than 20,000 refugees arrived in Grand Gedeh county in a single week that month, overwhelming already struggling border communities like the small town of Tuzon, which had already taken in 1,500 Ivorian refugees just days after before Gbagbo was arrested in mid-April.
Cocoa farmer Maurice Beh and his family fled fighting near their home in western Ivory Coast in March, and like many they hid in the forest before crossing into Liberia.
Beh says since they arrived in Tuzon, food has been a problem. He says they have to get small day contracts to do odd jobs and be paid so they can buy rice for their families. He says they work in the forest or look for snails to sell in town. He says they don't have shelter and sleep where they can, even outside.
In recent weeks, the situation in communities like Tuzon has gotten even more desperate, and Liberia's internal affairs minister, Harrison Kanwea, has called for increased international aid.
"The situation is pathetic. It has overwhelmed the local communities," said Kanwea. "Right now, the host communities have depleted their supplies of food in their effort in helping their brothers and sisters that have come across from the other side."
UNHCR Liberia Representative, Ibrahmia Coly, said 85 percent of refugees are still in Liberian border communities and the agency has revised its strategy to provide assistance to all refugees, not just those in transit centers or camps further from the border, as it had previously planned.
However, he said reaching those communities can be a logistical nightmare, especially as the onset of rainy season makes the region's notoriously bad roads even more impassable.
June 2 (Bloomberg) -- Ivory Coasts president, Alassane Ouattara, is rewarding the allies that stood by him during a post-election crisis with key posts being handed to an opposition coalition, said Gilles Yabi, West Africa director of the International Crisis Group.
The new cabinet is not really a government of reconciliation with no appointees from the party former leader Laurent Gbagbo, Yabi said by phone from Paris today. The list reflects a willingness to express gratitude to those politicians who have helped contribute to Ouattaras victory.
Ouattara was sworn in on May 21, taking power almost six months after a disputed election where Gbagbo, who ruled the worlds top cocoa producer for a decade, refused to cede power. At estimated 2,000 people were killed in clashes, according to the United Nations, before Gbagbos April 11 capture eased the crisis.
Gbagbos Front Populaire Ivoirien will not take part in Ouattaras administration until the former leader and his aides are released, Mamadou Koulibaly, a senior party member, said on May 25.
Ouattara retained Guillaume Soro and prime minister and Charles Koffi Diby as finance minister, according to a statement handed to reporters yesterday in Abidjan, the commercial capital. The agriculture ministry, which oversees the cocoa industry, will be headed by Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly.
Opposition Rewarded
The smaller opposition Parti Democratique de Cote dIvoire was rewarded with posts at ministries including foreign affairs and economic infrastructure, said Samir Gadio, emerging markets strategist with Standard Bank Plc.
This is a relatively inclusive government, he said in an e-mail.
The PDCI ruled Ivory Coast from when it attained independence from colonial ruler France in 1960 until 1999. Its candidate in the first round of last years presidential election, Henri Konan Bedie, threw his support behind Ouattara in the November runoff.
The 36-member administration will need to address continuing insecurity in the country and reunification of a nation split since between a government-held south and rebel- controlled north following a 2002 army mutiny. The northerners supported Ouattara in the post-election fighting.
Ivory Coast is still in a critical and very fragile phase, at least until the legislative elections that are planned for the end of the year, said Yabi.
Cocoa for July delivery fell for a second day, declining 7 pounds or 0.4 percent to 1,807 pounds per metric ton by 2:02 p.m. in London on the NYSE Liffe market.
Ivory Coasts defaulted $2.3 billion Eurobonds rallied for a second day, increasing 0.7 percent to 55.667 cents on the dollar as of 2:04 p.m. in London, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg.
BRUSSELS, June 24 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch said a decision from the International Criminal Court to probe post-election violence in Ivory Coast doesn't reach far enough.
The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court asked ICC judges for permission to launch an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity alleged to have been committed in Ivory Coast since November.
Ivory Coast was pushed to the brink of civil war following a political stalemate that last from November to April. The international community recognized Alassane Ouattara as the winner of a November election though incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo refused to stand down.
Elise Keppler, a senior justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, said the prosecutor's decision was needed to hold those responsible for the post-election violence accountable.
"It will be important that ICC investigations go beyond the latest abuses, though, and address terrible crimes committed over the past decade," she said in a statement.
A U.S. national emergency was declared for the Ivory Coast in 2006 to deal with what the White House said was an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to national security interests.
Gbagbo signed a peace deal with rebel leaders in 2003 following a civil war that divided the country. The deal collapsed in 2004, however, and by 2006, Gbagbo was challenging decisions by the U.N. Security Council to strengthen the power of the prime minister as skirmishes with opposition forces intensified.
The White House in a statement said post-2002 conflicts in the Ivory Coast resulted in the "massacre" of civilians, human rights abuses and fatal attacks on peacekeeping forces.
People in the Ivory Coast are being killed by a tyrant, so when we are sending our cruise missiles and fighter jets over there? supposedly we are bombing Libya to do the right thing and help people, so we need to get over to the Ivory Coast and help those folks as well.
Civilians Die as Ivory Coast Braces for a Defeated President's Last Stand
At least 52 civilians have been killed in the past week amid escalating violence instigated by an authoritarian President who refuses to heed the will of his people. No, not in Libya, or Yemen, or Bahrain, but in the West African nation of Ivory Coast, which is struggling for media attention amid crises elsewhere.
"Ivory Coast isn't considered strategically important enough on the global stage it is not a Libya, so to speak," one Western diplomat points out. "And that, quite simply, is why it hasn't got the attention it deserves from the international community."
The erstwhile beacon of prosperity and stability in West Africa has been held hostage for five months by incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to cede power after losing a November runoff presidential election. Instead, he has mobilized the state apparatus and a fanatical core of young militants against the citizens who voted for his challenger, Alassane Ouattara. Daily battles rage between a burgeoning pro-Ouattara insurgency in Abidjan known as the "invisible commandos," and the army, which backs Gbagbo. At least 460 deaths have been confirmed since mid-December, according to the U.N. mission there, known as ONUCI.
And the violence threatens to escalate as Gbagbo has urged his young backers to join the army en masse. In the main city of Abidjan, some 15,000 youths, mostly unemployed and illiterate, gathered at the army headquarters on March 22. "I'm prepared to defend my country, which is under attack from foreigners," unemployed 17-year-old Venance Kouakou, who rushed to sign up, told TIME. Foreigners, he added, were all those who "voted against Gbagbo, the true President."
Later, a group of youths marching through Abidjan's once clean, palm-lined streets, chanted loudly, "With our Kalashs, we will target the enemy!" Gbagbo's popularity has long centered on xenophobic rhetoric against migrants from other African countries. Ivorians from the north of the country where Ouattara has popular support are considered foreigners by Gbagbo's supporters because many have migrant roots, giving the threat of violence a distinctly xenophobic character.
Read more: Ivory Coast Braces for Civil War as Violence Escalates - TIME
People in the Ivory Coast are being killed by a tyrant, so when we are sending our cruise missiles and fighter jets over there? supposedly we are bombing Libya to do the right thing and help people, so we need to get over to the Ivory Coast and help those folks as well.
Civilians Die as Ivory Coast Braces for a Defeated President's Last Stand
At least 52 civilians have been killed in the past week amid escalating violence instigated by an authoritarian President who refuses to heed the will of his people. No, not in Libya, or Yemen, or Bahrain, but in the West African nation of Ivory Coast, which is struggling for media attention amid crises elsewhere.
"Ivory Coast isn't considered strategically important enough on the global stage it is not a Libya, so to speak," one Western diplomat points out. "And that, quite simply, is why it hasn't got the attention it deserves from the international community."
The erstwhile beacon of prosperity and stability in West Africa has been held hostage for five months by incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to cede power after losing a November runoff presidential election. Instead, he has mobilized the state apparatus and a fanatical core of young militants against the citizens who voted for his challenger, Alassane Ouattara. Daily battles rage between a burgeoning pro-Ouattara insurgency in Abidjan known as the "invisible commandos," and the army, which backs Gbagbo. At least 460 deaths have been confirmed since mid-December, according to the U.N. mission there, known as ONUCI.
And the violence threatens to escalate as Gbagbo has urged his young backers to join the army en masse. In the main city of Abidjan, some 15,000 youths, mostly unemployed and illiterate, gathered at the army headquarters on March 22. "I'm prepared to defend my country, which is under attack from foreigners," unemployed 17-year-old Venance Kouakou, who rushed to sign up, told TIME. Foreigners, he added, were all those who "voted against Gbagbo, the true President."
Later, a group of youths marching through Abidjan's once clean, palm-lined streets, chanted loudly, "With our Kalashs, we will target the enemy!" Gbagbo's popularity has long centered on xenophobic rhetoric against migrants from other African countries. Ivorians from the north of the country where Ouattara has popular support are considered foreigners by Gbagbo's supporters because many have migrant roots, giving the threat of violence a distinctly xenophobic character.
Read more: Ivory Coast Braces for Civil War as Violence Escalates - TIME
Same reason we dont bomb Sudan or Mexico, there is no money in it.
People in the Ivory Coast are being killed by a tyrant, so when we are sending our cruise missiles and fighter jets over there? supposedly we are bombing Libya to do the right thing and help people, so we need to get over to the Ivory Coast and help those folks as well.
Civilians Die as Ivory Coast Braces for a Defeated President's Last Stand
Read more: Ivory Coast Braces for Civil War as Violence Escalates - TIME
Same reason we dont bomb Sudan or Mexico, there is no money in it.
You nailed it, if the Ivory Coast had oil we'd have the 101st Air borne in there so quick it would shatter the sound barrier.
Same reason we dont bomb Sudan or Mexico, there is no money in it.
You nailed it, if the Ivory Coast had oil we'd have the 101st Air borne in there so quick it would shatter the sound barrier.
Yup, and it is disgusting considering we lost more men in our wars in the middle east, for humanitarian reasons, yet Ivory coast, sierra Leon, and other can be ignored. Its bull shit, and our politicians should be ill with shame.
You nailed it, if the Ivory Coast had oil we'd have the 101st Air borne in there so quick it would shatter the sound barrier.
Yup, and it is disgusting considering we lost more men in our wars in the middle east, for humanitarian reasons, yet Ivory coast, sierra Leon, and other can be ignored. Its bull shit, and our politicians should be ill with shame.
Yup and the people in these countries need the help even more than the people in Iraq and Libya who we bombed the shit out of. But since there is no capital coming from the Ivory Coast and it is dirt poor, they will be ignored.
Yup, and it is disgusting considering we lost more men in our wars in the middle east, for humanitarian reasons, yet Ivory coast, sierra Leon, and other can be ignored. Its bull shit, and our politicians should be ill with shame.
Yup and the people in these countries need the help even more than the people in Iraq and Libya who we bombed the shit out of. But since there is no capital coming from the Ivory Coast and it is dirt poor, they will be ignored.
And that what is so sad. The U.S. and other world leader dont see the value in Africa and Africans. I have personally seen the squalor they live in, and the diseases they live with, hell, the water they have to drink is disgusting. It makes you want to slap the shit out of people who piss and moan about haw bad they have it here. Thirst ? No one in this country has a clue what that is, its the same Hunger, no one in this country has a clue what starving is. But the one thing that blows me away, is that despite all the bad African still find it possible to smile, and find happiness in something . They are tough as woodpecker lips, and I feel would be a better cause to dump billions into.
Yup and the people in these countries need the help even more than the people in Iraq and Libya who we bombed the shit out of. But since there is no capital coming from the Ivory Coast and it is dirt poor, they will be ignored.
And that what is so sad. The U.S. and other world leader dont see the value in Africa and Africans. I have personally seen the squalor they live in, and the diseases they live with, hell, the water they have to drink is disgusting. It makes you want to slap the shit out of people who piss and moan about haw bad they have it here. Thirst ? No one in this country has a clue what that is, its the same Hunger, no one in this country has a clue what starving is. But the one thing that blows me away, is that despite all the bad African still find it possible to smile, and find happiness in something . They are tough as woodpecker lips, and I feel would be a better cause to dump billions into.
I agree 110% my friend, people in the US complain if their are half an hour late going to lunch, none of us has any idea what true hunger is like in countries such as Somalia, Zimbabwe, the Ivory Coast etc, we give billions to countries like Egypt, Pakistan and Afghanistan where the people DESPISE Americans, they hate us and would not piss on us if we were on fire. I don't know how Africans feel about the US but I would much rather see us invest our money in Africa if we have to put it somewhere instead of the Middle East and Pakistan, those guys are ungrateful and don't appreciate the moneys we give them, the Africans would. I know we already give money and aid to African countries but they are definently not getting the attention the countries in the Middle East are getting.
