Civil War approaching?

It’s hard to believe that I’m in a country that’s almost at a civil war stage, everything here is so normal.  Music plays 24/7, people are happy & still very welcoming but the discussion around me is always about politics.  It seems that many people in CI will accept Ouattara as President for the good of the economy & to have the country working again.  It's hard seeing so many people affected by this conflict.  However the hard core ‘patriots’ have other ideas and will keep going till the end to ensure Gbagbo is in power, they’re predominantly in Abidjan & the south of CI.  I try to work most days on the computer looking for work, chasing contracts and go to bed to then wake in horror when an avocado falls on the tin roof fearing the worst!

We are now 4 adults & 6 kids under one roof in two rooms ... my hosts refuse to let me move, I have their room with the only air-con in the house, I’m completely spoilt! A few days ago a friend of theirs arrived with her baby boy on her back.  She’d come from Port Bouet, the district of Abidjan next to the port and airport.  She’d seen mercenaries killing people, two young men in particular that she saw dead in the street.  She has calmed down a lot since arriving when she was very tense but constantly calls her husband in the morning to ensure he’s still alive.  It seems that there are a lot of refugees that have headed this way to be with friends & family.

Things in Abidjan aren’t good; E who will be the future centre manager, returned from here after 6 days of hard work on the computer with both of us typing up documents for the mayor & other officials here.  He got a direct bus that took 5hrs instead of a usual maximum of 3hrs but at least it was only 2,200CFA, they’d loaded up with bags of charcoal which is a VERY rare commodity now in Abidjan.  Each bag here costs 1,000CFA, 3 weeks ago I heard a bag in Abidjan cost 16,000CFA – god knows what the price is now.  They were stopped on their way into Abidjan demanding 1,000CFA per bag by customs, I’m not sure how many they had but there was a big argument and the bags were left at Adjouffou on the edge of Abidjan whilst the driver probably went off to find money to pay for it.  

E is in Abobo, one of the worst areas for the mercenary led killings, nothing moves there apparently, no taxis ... nothing, it’s become a ghost town.  People are scared to go out , doors are locked & the only means of communication is by mobile phone.  The fear of genocide is increasing on both sides, there’s a mass grave in Abidjan apparently, heavily guarded by Gbagbo military ... whether they’ll take photos & say it was the other side that was killed or their own men, who knows .. But most of the other districts in Abidjan functional perfectly normally .. the fear is not so desperate, possibly because both Abobo & Adjame were the areas where the ‘death squads’ killed many early on in the last crisis.

Prior to coming into CI, I was in touch with Amnesty International, I'm now sending them reports of what I hear locally from people, talking to them face to face & getting the facts.  I don't care who's responsible for the killings, I'm not politically minded, but to kill civilians is a crime in my book.

It’s the end of December & the mayor still hasn’t returned I realise he’s been caught up in the political situation & ‘Three Wise Men’ from Benin, Cap Verde & Sierra Leone that came to mediate with Gbagbo.  I desperately need to see him to get confirmation of the project ... I’m determined more than ever that we get this project set up & running.  There’s a crisis happening here right now & if it's not resolved it could get worse .. people are suffering and they’ll be more kids on the streets than before.  Personally I see CI going the same way as Zimbabwe; why the UN don’t do more I don’t know. 

We’ve had three consecutive days of storms, that all started around 4pm the second day was the worst, rain pelted down half the night, makes the road between here & Aboisso very difficult, in some parts the road has gone & got a lot worse since last year.  In it’s place are massive puddles with lots of mud, which wasn’t great yesterday as it came into the footwell of my 7 seater & I arrived in Aboisso with very muddy feet.  At least I managed to hold my balance in Aboisso when I almost went over in a muddy patch!   I’d headed down to Aboisso again, this time alone.  Absolutely no problems at all, except for taxi guys desperately trying to sell me a seat in the taxis that head to Noe & the border.  

I was there to meet a Canadian friend's friend who’s been helping us both with the project.  He’s from the north & found that the situation in Abidjan was too much to handle.  As far as I know he escaped Bouake during the height of the last crisis.  Anyway, I met up with him in Aboisso & introduced him my friends there who found him a hotel for the night before he was due to leave CI for 'quieter' climes.  I rang Accra & had a bed organised for him there before he heads to Lome, Togo where he has a promise of work from a friend.  I heard from him when he reached Ghana he got stuck at the border trying to get transport to Accra .. apparently he’s the only Ivorian heading that way which is good news as there are reports of around 17,000 refugees from the west already in Liberia & another 200 in Guinea.

I haven’t really done much; I went with my hosts & friends to his club the other side of town, had a bit of a problem with the town gendarmes who’d returned from a ‘mission’ and wanted to enter in uniform with their kalashnikovs .. eventually they realised that it wasn’t such a good idea and left but caused a bit of a chaos trying to get them to exit the place before everyone calmed down again.  Strange really when in ‘normal’ times they wouldn’t even consider entering armed but in the situation we’re in they feel they have the right to dance ‘armed’!!  

 I’ve made few trips to Aboisso; each time I forget to go to the pharmacy there as the one here doesn’t have my malaria tablets, got 2 weeks worth left, not completely desperate yet.  My swimming idea went very wrong when I heard that there are now crocs around, so I am hoping that the Mayor will be with us tonight for New Years Eve as promised so that I can get down to the beach & swim in the ocean.  

In the meantime, I keep receiving messages on Facebook from people who are genuinely concerned by my situation but unaware of my surroundings.  I'm finding it the most stressful thing to deal with at the moment ... Positive wishes are welcomed but being told that I might need rescuing by EU troops is a bit of an overstatement ... spectators should remain just that unless they want to help with the project!

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!!!

Entering Cote d'Ivoire ...

Left Takoradi at 11am today, got a tro-tro directly to the border, my stomach had a mind of it’s own and had been doing somersaults since early morning.  For once I spent less time arguing with tro-tro drivers over luggage money having thrown an early fit over the extra stuff I was taking which was for Ivoirians, some guy got a mouthful from me & backed down immediately.  Stomach giving me a lot of grief having to visit Takoradi tro-tro station's public conveniences just due to nerves; in my head I was determined I was going to return to Cote d’Ivoire.

We finally got to the border around 1.20pm, I asked the tro-tro driver not to drop me at the tro-tro station but up near the immigration post for Ghana, he was obliging & saved me having to lug my luggage through Elubo’s chaos to get to immigration.  Exited Ghana without a problem, got to the road to get a taxi the 800m or so up to Noe (CI) border.  After a bit of a fuss, got one for 1GhC then he said I could sit & wait for the other 4/5 passengers he needed to fill it.  Offered him another 0.20GhC to get going immediately, we started off up the hill & a white pick-up went tearing past us.  I immediately realised it was my Czech friend Tomas’ business pick-up,yelled at my driver to catch it up & we overtook it with me calling to Achille, in fact it was Marcel.  He indicated to my driver to pull over, he jumped out & I got a great hug from him.  He hauled  my luggage into the back of it & we finished the last 400m together as Achille, Tomas’ business partner whizzed past in the Tata which I’d seen parked at the Ghanaian immigration post but not paid it much attention, not believing they would be at the border.  More hugs & kisses all round as I saw the final vehicle of their convoy, a truck full of their goods arrived, which got put straight into the customs shed.

I got to the vaccination centre to show my yellow fever certificate, I’d thought all was well but they noticed my meningitus was out of date.  Wanted me to be vaccinated there & then, I refused due to the fact my own syringes & needles were  now in the back of Achille’s car about to clear customs with him whilst I was on foot with just a small bag, didn't want to draw attention to the medicines I was bringing in.  I was only a month or so out of date so it really wasn’t that desperate, after a bit of pleading in English only, I was allowed to leave.  Immigration were fine, friendly & had a laugh with me and I wandered out into the street without so much as a glace from customs at my daypack.

Achille drove as fast as he could westwards.   We went through about 6 military blockades, all friendly nothing too sinister, the most thorough being at N’Kizro just before Samo.  Then we got to the edge of the lagoon at Bassam, I expected to see a roadblock there between the two bridges as there had been in the past.  There was a roadblock but governed by about 30 men aged around 20, turned out to be Ouattara supporters, one was sat on the a bench he’d placed in the only position you could pass as the rest of the width of the road had tyres & others bits on it.  Kept making eating motions whilst about 3 descended on the car demanding money saying the guy on the bench was a Betie (pro-Gbagbo normally), Achille asked them why he needed to negotiate and after a 30 second or so negotiation we were allowed to pass.  At the other end of the second bridge there was a little gang of 50 or so all ranting at the occupants of a minibus.  We passed without further problems & Achille dropped me at my friends.

I’ve been here only a few hours.  So much isn’t going on, but the undercurrent is there, no taxis, prices hiked up due to no deliveries, Red Cross passing us at a bar where we were initially the only ones.  I heard shots but took no notice; we have come back to the house early than normal.  The TV is turned on, it’s national TV, RTI – Gbagbo controlled & very interesting what was coming across, to my mind some of it was true, some of it might be considered half truths but a very firm messageis coming across, Sarkozy,the UN, African Union etc cannot control what happens in this country and he’s here to stay.  Rumours are abound, Ouattara is at Licorne, the French army HQ, 21 died yesterday  ‘Abbatoir Thursday’.  Diplomats refused their immunity & shoulder held rockets were shown on TV apparently the UNOCI were responsible for getting weapons to the ‘Forces Nouvelles’ aka  ‘old rebels’ who are pro-Ouattara; amongst messages from the armed forces & justice ministers, my mind is swirling amazed at the propaganda.  

I'm in my room as the obvious brainwashing is just too much to take and to see my friends lapping up every word worries me, there are two sides to every story.  I don’t know what to think, I have my own theory on the future here if this situation continues, I’m not going to write it here but I just hope this ends peacefully without anymore bloodshed.  The economy can’t take this much longer they’ll loose what has been built up over the last few years.