Latest news with #CotedIvoire
Zawya
3 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
'A Mission, Not a Job!' - African Development Bank President reflects on a decade of leadership
Speaking Monday at a breakfast meeting with journalists, the President of the African Development Bank Group ( Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, described his ten-year presidency as a consuming yet profoundly fulfilling mission. The press briefing is the first official event of the Bank's 2025 Annual Meetings, taking place in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire from 26 to 30 May 2025 – during which a new president of the Bank will be elected. 'This is not a job. If anyone is looking for a job, please don't take it. This is not a job. This is a mission,' he said. 'As my wife Grace and staff would tell you, for ten years I have had no life. Completely zero. I worked every single day. Every single step.' Adesina expressed gratitude for the opportunity to lead the institution. 'Serving as President of the African Development Bank Group has been the greatest honor of my life,' he said. 'It has been a decade of relentless purpose, of enduring passion, and of tireless service.' The event was attended by journalists covering the Annual Meetings, which are expected to draw a record 6,000 delegates from 91 countries, including policymakers, private sector leaders, academics, civil society, development partners, and media. '[This] is one of my favorite moments of every Annual Meeting. It gives me the opportunity to speak frankly, reflect deeply, and thank you sincerely,' Adesina told the journalists , adding that the 2025 Meetings are 'the final chapter of a remarkable decade of transformation.' Delivering his remarks in English and French, Adesina reeled out the Bank's biggest achievements, including the largest capital increase in its history, from $93 billion in 2015 to $318 billion; the record replenishment of the African Development Fund, raising $8.9 billion; and the half a billion Africans who have benefited from the Bank's investments under his leadership. Adesina's presidency began in 2015 with the launch of the 'High 5s' development priorities: Light Up and Power Africa, Feed Africa, Industrialize Africa, Integrate Africa, and Improve the Quality of Life for the People of Africa. Ten years on, those priorities have made a profound impact. 'The High 5s have impacted on the lives of over 565 million people across Africa,' Adesina said. 'These are not just figures. They are futures. They are hopes realized.' He expressed his gratitude to the media for their support over the past decade, and for their presence at the last annual meetings under his headship. 'Your role is more important than ever,' he said. 'You are not just observers. You are amplifiers of Africa's voice. You shape the narrative. You challenge us. You inform the world.' Echoing his keynote remarks from the All-Africa Media Leaders' Summit in May 2024 in Nairobi, Kenya, Adesina called for the emergence of African media platforms that will credibly amplify positive continental narratives on a global scale. Looking ahead, Adesina expressed pride in the transformation of the Bank during his tenure, and its enhanced global stature. 'The African Development Bank you have today is not the African Development Bank you used to have. This is a global institution now.' he said. Asked what advice he would offer his successor, Adesina responded, 'The responsibility of that leader is to build on the past, to look far into the future, and to find within themselves what courage it takes to stand up for Africa's interests. To make sure that Africa's voice is never silenced on issues that matter globally and where it matters globally.' Reflecting on the forthcoming transition, and the institution he will hand over on September 1, 2025, Adesina declared, 'Leadership may change, but the mission remains. The Bank's direction is clear, its resolve strong, and its commitment to Africa's development unshakable.' Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB). Additional Images: Media Contact: Tolu Ogunlesi, Communication and External Relations, African Development Bank; Email: media@ About the African Development Bank Group: The African Development Bank Group is Africa's premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). On the ground in 41 African countries with an external office in Japan, the Bank contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional member states. For more information:
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why did rumours of a coup sweep Ivory Coast this week?
Fake stories of a coup d'etat in the West African nation of Ivory Coast surfaced this week amid mounting tensions over the upcoming October general elections. Several accounts on social media sites, including Facebook and X, posted videos of huge crowds on streets with burning buildings, which they claimed were from the country's commercial capital, Abidjan. However, no violence was reported by security forces or any other government authorities in the city this week. Abidjan residents also denied the claims on social media. On Thursday, the country's National Agency for Information Systems Security of Ivory Coast (ANSSI) denied the rumours. In a statement published on local media sites, the agency said: 'Publications currently circulating on the X network claim that a coup d'etat has taken place in Cote d'Ivoire [Ivory Coast] … This claim is completely unfounded. It is the result of a deliberate and coordinated disinformation campaign.' The rumours come just weeks after popular opposition politician Tidjane Thiam was barred from running for office after his eligibility was challenged in court over a technicality relating to his citizenship status. Thiam is appealing the ruling and claims the ban is political. Ivory Coast, Africa's cocoa powerhouse, has a long history of election violence, with one episode a decade ago spiralling into armed conflict that resulted in thousands of deaths. Fears that President Alassane Ouattara might run for a fourth term have added to the tensions this time. Although the country has a two-term limit for presidents, a constitutional amendment in 2016 reset the clock on his terms, the president's supporters argue, allowing him to run for a third five-year term in 2020. That same argument could also see him on the ballot papers this October, despite what experts say is widespread disillusionment with the political establishment in the country. Here's what we know about the current political situation in the country: Videos showing hundreds of people demonstrating in the streets and setting fires to shops and malls started appearing on social media sites on Wednesday this week. French is the official language in Ivory Coast, but most of the posts and blogs with images purporting to be from were from Abidjan and claiming that a coup d'etat was in progress were written in English. Some posts also claimed that the country's army chief of staff, Lassina Doumbia, had been assassinated and that President Ouattara was missing. These claims were untrue and have been denied by the office of the president. Credible media outlets, including Ivorian state media and private news media, did not report the alleged violence. It is unclear how the rumours that President Ouattara was missing emerged. On Thursday, he chaired a routine cabinet meeting in the capital. He also attended a ceremony commemorating the revered former president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, alongside Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe. The upcoming general elections on October 25 are at the root of current political tensions in the country. Elections have in the past been violent: During the October 2010 general election, former President Laurent Gbagbo refused to hand over power to Ouattara, who was proclaimed the winner by the electoral commission. Tense political negotiations failed, and the situation eventually spiralled into armed civil war, with Ouattara's forces, backed by French troops, besieging Gbagbo's national army. France is the former colonial power in Ivory Coast, and Ouattara has close ties to Paris. Some 3,000 people were killed in the violence. Gbagbo's capture on April 11, 2011, marked the end of the conflict. He was later tried and acquitted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes in 2019. That painful history has spurred fears that this year's polls could also turn violent, as several opposition candidates, including Gbagbo, have been barred from running, mainly due to past convictions. In 2018, the former president was sentenced in absentia to a 20-year jail term over the looting of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) during the country's post-election crisis. Last December, the governing Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) party nominated Ouattara for a fourth term as president. So far, Ouattara has refused to say whether he intends to run, triggering concerns among Ivorians, many of whom feel the president has outstayed his welcome. Analysts see the party's nomination as setting the stage for his eventual candidature, however. Analysts also say there is widespread sympathy for the young military leaders who seized power in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, and who have maintained a hostile stance towards France, unlike Ouattara. He has been praised for overseeing rapid economic stability in the last decade and a half, which has made the country the regional economic hub. Ouattara is also credited with bringing some level of political peace to the country. In 2023, he welcomed back Gbagbo, who had been living in Brussels since his 2021 ICC acquittal. Since then, election campaigns have not been as inflamed as they were in the 2000s when Gbagbo played on ethnic sentiments to incite opposition to Ouattara, whose father was originally from Burkina Faso. However, Ouattara's critics accuse him of fighting to hold onto power unconstitutionally. Some also accuse him of coercing state institutions into railroading his political opponents, including in the latest case involving Thiam. His closeness with France, which is increasingly viewed as arrogant and neo-colonialistic, particularly by younger people across Francophone West Africa, has not won the president any favour from the country's significant under-35 population. Thiam, 62, is a prominent politician and businessman in Ivorian political circles. He is a nephew of the revered Houphouet-Boigny and was the first Ivorian to pass the entrance exam to France's prestigious Polytechnique engineering school. He returned from France to serve as a minister of planning and development from 1998 until 1999, when a coup d'etat collapsed the civilian government, and the army took control of the country. Thiam declined a cabinet position offered by the military government and left the country. He went on to take high-profile positions, first as the chief executive of the UK insurance group, Prudential, and then as head of global investment bank Credit Suisse. A corporate espionage scandal at the bank led to his resignation in 2020 after a colleague accused Thiam of spying on him. Thiam was cleared of any involvement. After returning to Ivory Coast in 2022, Thiam re-entered politics and rejoined the Democratic Party (PDCI), the former governing party which held power from independence in 1960 until the 1999 coup d'etat, and which is now the major opposition party. In December 2023, the party's delegates overwhelmingly voted for Thiam to be the next leader following the death of former head and ex-President Henri Konan Bedie. At the time, PDCI officials said Thiam represented a breath of fresh air for the country's politics, and many young people appeared ready to back him as the next president. But his ambitions came to a halt on April 22 when a judge ordered his name be struck off the list of contenders because Thiam had taken French nationality in 1987 and automatically lost Ivorian citizenship according to the country's laws. Although the politician renounced his French nationality in February this year, the court ruled he had not done so before registering himself on the electoral roll in 2022, and was thus ineligible to be the party leader, a presidential candidate, or even a voter. Thiam and his lawyers argued that the law is inconsistent. Ivorian footballers on the country's national team, Thiam pointed out in one interview with reporters, are mostly also French nationals, but face no restrictions on holding Ivorian nationality. 'The bottom line is, I was born Ivorian,' Thiam told the BBC in an interview, accusing the government of trying to block what he said is his party's likely success in this year's elections. It is unclear if Thiam can legally make his way back onto the candidate list, but he is trying. In May, he resigned as PDCI president and was almost immediately re-elected with 99 percent of the vote. He has yet to reveal if he will attempt to re-register as a candidate, but has promised to keep up the fight. Thiam has pledged to attract industrial investment to the country as he once did as minister, and to remove the country from the France-backed CFA currency economy that comprises West and Central African countries formerly colonised by France, and sees their currencies pegged to the euro. Meanwhile, other strong candidates include Pascal Affi N'Guessan, 67, a former prime minister and close ally of Gbagbo, who will represent Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI). Simone Gbagbo, the former first lady who is now divorced from Gbagbo, will also run, as the nominee for the Movement of the Capable Generations. She was sentenced to a 20-year term in 2015 on charges of undermining state security, but benefitted from an amnesty law to foster national reconciliation later in 2018.
Al Jazeera
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Why did rumours of a coup sweep Ivory Coast this week?
Fake stories of a coup d'etat in the West African nation of Ivory Coast surfaced this week amid mounting tensions over the upcoming October general elections. Several accounts on social media sites, including Facebook and X, posted videos of huge crowds on streets with burning buildings, which they claimed were from the country's commercial capital, Abidjan. However, no violence was reported by security forces or any other government authorities in the city this week. Abidjan residents also denied the claims on social media. On Thursday, the country's National Agency for Information Systems Security of Ivory Coast (ANSSI) denied the rumours. In a statement published on local media sites, the agency said: 'Publications currently circulating on the X network claim that a coup d'etat has taken place in Cote d'Ivoire [Ivory Coast] … This claim is completely unfounded. It is the result of a deliberate and coordinated disinformation campaign.' The rumours come just weeks after popular opposition politician Tidjane Thiam was barred from running for office after his eligibility was challenged in court over a technicality relating to his citizenship status. Thiam is appealing the ruling and claims the ban is political. Ivory Coast, Africa's cocoa powerhouse, has a long history of election violence, with one episode a decade ago spiralling into armed conflict that resulted in thousands of deaths. Fears that President Alassane Ouattara might run for a fourth term have added to the tensions this time. Although the country has a two-term limit for presidents, a constitutional amendment in 2016 reset the clock on his terms, the president's supporters argue, allowing him to run for a third five-year term in 2020. That same argument could also see him on the ballot papers this October, despite what experts say is widespread disillusionment with the political establishment in the country. Here's what we know about the current political situation in the country: Videos showing hundreds of people demonstrating in the streets and setting fires to shops and malls started appearing on social media sites on Wednesday this week. French is the official language in Ivory Coast, but most of the posts and blogs with images purporting to be from were from Abidjan and claiming that a coup d'etat was in progress were written in English. Some posts also claimed that the country's army chief of staff, Lassina Doumbia, had been assassinated and that President Ouattara was missing. These claims were untrue and have been denied by the office of the president. Credible media outlets, including Ivorian state media and private news media, did not report the alleged violence. It is unclear how the rumours that President Ouattara was missing emerged. On Thursday, he chaired a routine cabinet meeting in the capital. He also attended a ceremony commemorating the revered former president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, alongside Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe. The upcoming general elections on October 25 are at the root of current political tensions in the country. Elections have in the past been violent: During the October 2010 general election, former President Laurent Gbagbo refused to hand over power to Ouattara, who was proclaimed the winner by the electoral commission. Tense political negotiations failed, and the situation eventually spiralled into armed civil war, with Ouattara's forces, backed by French troops, besieging Gbagbo's national army. France is the former colonial power in Ivory Coast, and Ouattara has close ties to Paris. Some 3,000 people were killed in the violence. Gbagbo's capture on April 11, 2011, marked the end of the conflict. He was later tried and acquitted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes in 2019. That painful history has spurred fears that this year's polls could also turn violent, as several opposition candidates, including Gbagbo, have been barred from running, mainly due to past convictions. In 2018, the former president was sentenced in absentia to a 20-year jail term over the looting of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) during the country's post-election crisis. Last December, the governing Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) party nominated Ouattara for a fourth term as president. So far, Ouattara has refused to say whether he intends to run, triggering concerns among Ivorians, many of whom feel the president has outstayed his welcome. Analysts see the party's nomination as setting the stage for his eventual candidature, however. Analysts also say there is widespread sympathy for the young military leaders who seized power in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, and who have maintained a hostile stance towards France, unlike Ouattara. He has been praised for overseeing rapid economic stability in the last decade and a half, which has made the country the regional economic hub. Ouattara is also credited with bringing some level of political peace to the country. In 2023, he welcomed back Gbagbo, who had been living in Brussels since his 2021 ICC acquittal. Since then, election campaigns have not been as inflamed as they were in the 2000s when Gbagbo played on ethnic sentiments to incite opposition to Ouattara, whose father was originally from Burkina Faso. However, Ouattara's critics accuse him of fighting to hold onto power unconstitutionally. Some also accuse him of coercing state institutions into railroading his political opponents, including in the latest case involving Thiam. His closeness with France, which is increasingly viewed as arrogant and neo-colonialistic, particularly by younger people across Francophone West Africa, has not won the president any favour from the country's significant under-35 population. Thiam, 62, is a prominent politician and businessman in Ivorian political circles. He is a nephew of the revered Houphouet-Boigny and was the first Ivorian to pass the entrance exam to France's prestigious Polytechnique engineering school. He returned from France to serve as a minister of planning and development from 1998 until 1999, when a coup d'etat collapsed the civilian government, and the army took control of the country. Thiam declined a cabinet position offered by the military government and left the country. He went on to take high-profile positions, first as the chief executive of the UK insurance group, Prudential, and then as head of global investment bank Credit Suisse. A corporate espionage scandal at the bank led to his resignation in 2020 after a colleague accused Thiam of spying on him. Thiam was cleared of any involvement. After returning to Ivory Coast in 2022, Thiam re-entered politics and rejoined the Democratic Party (PDCI), the former governing party which held power from independence in 1960 until the 1999 coup d'etat, and which is now the major opposition party. In December 2023, the party's delegates overwhelmingly voted for Thiam to be the next leader following the death of former head and ex-President Henri Konan Bedie. At the time, PDCI officials said Thiam represented a breath of fresh air for the country's politics, and many young people appeared ready to back him as the next president. But his ambitions came to a halt on April 22 when a judge ordered his name be struck off the list of contenders because Thiam had taken French nationality in 1987 and automatically lost Ivorian citizenship according to the country's laws. Although the politician renounced his French nationality in February this year, the court ruled he had not done so before registering himself on the electoral roll in 2022, and was thus ineligible to be the party leader, a presidential candidate, or even a voter. Thiam and his lawyers argued that the law is inconsistent. Ivorian footballers on the country's national team, Thiam pointed out in one interview with reporters, are mostly also French nationals, but face no restrictions on holding Ivorian nationality. 'The bottom line is, I was born Ivorian,' Thiam told the BBC in an interview, accusing the government of trying to block what he said is his party's likely success in this year's elections. It is unclear if Thiam can legally make his way back onto the candidate list, but he is trying. In May, he resigned as PDCI president and was almost immediately re-elected with 99 percent of the vote. He has yet to reveal if he will attempt to re-register as a candidate, but has promised to keep up the fight. Thiam has pledged to attract industrial investment to the country as he once did as minister, and to remove the country from the France-backed CFA currency economy that comprises West and Central African countries formerly colonised by France, and sees their currencies pegged to the euro. Meanwhile, other strong candidates include Pascal Affi N'Guessan, 67, a former prime minister and close ally of Gbagbo, who will represent Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI). Simone Gbagbo, the former first lady who is now divorced from Gbagbo, will also run, as the nominee for the Movement of the Capable Generations. She was sentenced to a 20-year term in 2015 on charges of undermining state security, but benefitted from an amnesty law to foster national reconciliation later in 2018.
CTV News
22-05-2025
- CTV News
Canadian victims tied to global sextortion ring, including minors
Ivorian nationals have been arrested in Cote d'Ivoire in connection with an international sextortion and money laundering scheme that involved Canadian victims, which U.S. authorities say led to the suicide of one American teen. According to a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) press release, the accused, Alfred Kassi, allegedly worked with several money laundering accomplices who helped Kassi move the money he received from victims. Authorities say the scheme targeted thousands of victims, including minors, throughout Canada, the U.S., U.K., France, Spain and Italy. Seventeen-year-old U.S. teen Ryan Last, who the DOJ alleges is one of Kassi's victims, allegedly committed suicide hours after being sextorted online by an individual pretending to a 20-year-old woman in February 2022. The DOJ says Last paid Kassi US$150 dollars to prevent his intimate images from being released. Kassi was arrested on April 29 by Ivorian law enforcement. The DOJ says at the time of arrest, the accused had the sextortion messages he sent to Last still on his phone. One of the alleged money launderers is Oumarou Ouedraogo, who was arrested by Ivorian law enforcement on April 25. Ivorian law enforcement also arrested two other individuals, Moussa Diaby and Oumar Cisse. Both Diaby and Cisse were part of Kassi's alleged sextortion network and admitted to their own sextortion crimes. 'The government of Cote d'Ivoire does not extradite its own citizens, so these defendants will be prosecuted in their own country under Ivorian cybercrime statutes,' the press release said.
RNZ News
21-05-2025
- Sport
- RNZ News
Football: Five changes to All Whites squad as they continue World Cup build-up
Chris Wood of New Zealand celebrates his goal with Ben Old of New Zealand. Photo: PHOTOSPORT All Whites coach Darren Bazeley has made five changes from the squad that qualified for the World Cup for next month's internationals against Cote d'Ivoire and Ukraine. Defenders Finn Surman, Callan Elliot and Bill Tuiloma, goalkeeper Nik Tzanev and attacker Ben Old have all been included. Tim Payne misses the matches as he awaits the birth of a child, while Oliu Sail, Jesse Randall, Logan Rogerson and Storm Roux are missing from the squad that played the Oceania World Cup qualifiers. The All Whites (FIFA rank 86) face Côte d'Ivoire (41) and Ukraine (25) in the Canadian Shield Tournament in Toronto, Canada. With only five international windows before he is set to name his FIFA World Cup 2026 squad, Bazeley will be looking to give opportunities to a range of players to prove they deserve a place at the tournament next year. Old has returned from injury and Surman is back after it was agreed between his Portant Timbers club and All Whites coaching staff he would miss the previous international window. Samoa's Jarvis Vaai New Zealand's Finn Surman. FIFA World Cup 2026 - OFC Qualifiers, Samoa v New Zealand, Go Media Stadium Auckland, Monday 18 November 2024. Photo: Shane Wenzlick / "We have been lucky to play a number of home games over the last few windows, but it has always been the plan that heading into the FIFA World Cup next year we need to test ourselves, playing away, against a range of teams we could face in 2026," Bazeley said. "To face two top 50 sides, in a tournament situation, in one of the FIFA World Cup 2026 host venues, is the perfect challenge for us. "We have made a few changes to the squad from March which gives us the opportunity to look at some different players in the environment." The All Whites will face Côte d'Ivoire on Sunday 8 June at 11am NZT (Saturday 7 June at 7pm local time) followed by Ukraine on Wednesday 11 June at 9am NZT (Tuesday 10 June at 5pm local time). Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
