Armed troops were out in force on the streets of Cote d’Ivoire’s largest city, Abidjan, on Tuesday (28 November 2006) as already tense relations between President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny deteriorated. Since Sunday (26 November 2006), Gbagbo has signed eight decrees and reinstated three senior civil servants suspended by Banny last month for their part in the dumping of toxic waste around Abidjan in September.

As Cote d’Ivoire’s political leaders struggle with the conflict that has divided their country for the past four years, Ivorians at the grass-roots level have managed to resolve festering, deadly battles over land rights. Authorities this year completed a pilot programme to record rights to land after lengthy consultations with villagers, elders, chiefs and local officials.

On Monday, a group of some 200 militiamen in the western government-run town of Duekoue abducted the UN employee, demanding money from the government disarmament programme in return for his release, the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI) said in a statement on Tuesday. The abduction followed clashes on Friday that pitted pro-government militia holed up in improvised barracks against angry residents and security forces in the Yopougon suburb of Cote d’Ivoire’s main city, Abidjan.

For Siméon Konan of the non-governmental organisation Initiative for Peace (Initiative pour la paix), based in Côte d'Ivoire's financial centre of Abidjan, efforts to bring peace to the West African country leave something to be desired -- a recent United Nations Security Council resolution on Côte d'Ivoire notwithstanding. Resolution 1721, adopted unanimously last week in New York, gives President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny another year in office; this is in a bid to have authorities disarm militias and identify voters ahead of elections to be held before the end of October 2007.

Marginalised by society because they have few legal or institutional forms of protection, disabled women in Cote d'Ivoire are now coming out of the shadows and demanding their rights -- particularly those related to their sexual and reproductive lives. "Even if we don't get benefits, what's important to us is our rights," said Fatim Koné, a resident of the Ivorian financial capital, Abidjan, who had a leg amputated three years ago.

Tension is rising in Cote d'Ivoire as opposition and government supporters threaten to oppose a new peace plan expected to be approved on Tuesday (31 October 2006) by the United Nations Security Council to reunite the divided country. A 12-month extension of President Laurent Gbagbo's mandate endorsed by the Security Council in October last year failed to result in long-awaited presidential elections, and the polls have been postponed again.

The idea of saving money for an education is a universal concept. Ami and Alice are no exception. They head to the Adjame market in Cote d’Ivoire’s main city, Abidjan, most days to earn cash for school by selling little bags of water from bowls they balance on their heads. What is different about them is their age: Ami is six and Alice is seven.

West African leaders discussing Cote d’Ivoire’s future have decided to present their recommendations to the African Union and the United Nations to help determine a way forward for the divided country. Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) reaffirmed their support for UN Resolution 1633, which laid out a peace plan for Cote d’Ivoire, but announced no decision on the country’s future beyond the end of President Laurent Gbagbo’s term at the end of the month.

West African leaders began talks in the Nigerian capital on Friday aimed at breaking a political deadlock in Cote d'Ivoire that threatens to further destabilise the country. A key issue to be resolved is the status of President Laurent Gbagbo. A United Nations-backed peace plan extended his term in office by one year until the end of this month.

The International Rescue Committee seeks a Regional Gender Based Violence Program Manager for its West Africa programs, to be based in Abdijan, Cote d'Ivoire.

The ruling party of Cote d'Ivoire has called for the departure of French peacekeepers and the dissolution of a group of mediators ahead of a visit of South African President Thabo Mbeki on Monday (September 25). The Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) "demands the departure of all military French forces" monitoring the cease-fire between rebels in the north and government troops in the south, chairman Pascal Affi N'Guessan said in a statement read on state television late Friday.

Cote d'Ivoire’s President Laurent Gbagbo has said he believes the UN roadmap meant to bring peace to the country has “failed” and he will not attend a United Nations meeting in New York next week that was meant to yield a new way forward. "It is four years now that we are in this process and we are not reaching peace. That means the process has failed," Gbagbo told hundreds of army troops invited to a meeting at the presidential palace in the main city Abidjan on Thursday evening.

Authorities in Cote d'Ivoire have arrested two senior French officials of a Dutch-based commodities company in connection with a toxic waste scandal that has shaken an already jittery government in the war-divided country. "They have been charged with infractions of toxic waste laws," said Justice Ministry official Ali Yeo. Authorities prevented the two executives of commodities trader Trafigura Beheer BV from leaving the country late Saturday as they were about to board a flight to Europe.

Presidential elections in the Ivory Coast will not take place by October 2006, as mandated by the UN Security Council. The International Crisis Group blames the "deliberate strategy of politicians who want no peace they cannot dominate," and warns that a failure to set a new date for elections may reinstate the country's civil war. The report calls for a six month extension of the transition period and urges the UN Security Council to implement the targeted sanctions imposed by Resolution 1572.

As the foul, eggy smell from toxic waste dumped last month in Cote d’Ivoire’s main city dissipates, thousands of people are still falling sick, and the United Nations has warned the pollution could seep into the food chain.

The international working group charged with overseeing a United Nations blueprint for peace have recommended the power balance in war-divided Cote d’Ivoire be reassessed when that arrangement comes up for review later this month.

Six people have now died from the toxic waste dumped in the biggest Ivory Coast city, Abidjan, while 9,000 have sought treatment, the government says. The UN has set up an inter-agency team to respond to the crisis. A French team is analysing the waste, and says it will produce a report by the end of this week.

To get a sense of the problems besetting prisons in Côte d'Ivoire, look no further than Building C of the House of Arrest and Correction of Abidjan (Maison d'arrêt et de correction d'Abidjan, MACA). The 115 detainees crowded together in this building share just one toilet, and barely manage a daily shower.

Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny has been unable to implement the roadmap that was to have secured for Côte d’Ivoire a democratically legitimated government. As happened a year ago, there will be no presidential election on the date (currently 31 October 2006) mandated by the UN Security Council.

Ivory Coast's government has resigned after toxic waste dumped around the main city Abidjan killed three people, made 1,500 ill and triggered street protests. Interim Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny offered the resignation of his cabinet to President Laurent Gbagbo during an emergency meeting in the political capital Yamoussoukro which had been meant to work out a response to the crisis.