The Prime minister of Mali’s caretaker government, Cheick Modibo Diarra, arrived in Ivory Coast’s main city of Abidjan on Saturday for talks with Ivorian president and head of the West African ECOWAS bloc, Alassane Ouattara, on the Malian crisis.
Soon to finish his mandate as the first chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis-Moreno Ocampo sat down with France 24 in The Hague to talk about the prosecution of Mohammad Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam, the forthcoming trial of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo and, more broadly, about how the court has in just a few years made a huge impact on world affairs.
In Chad, one in five children die before their fifth birthday. The famine this year is so bad that one aid worker we talked to called it a catastrophe. Meanwhile, it was the first reported attack on a shrine in Timbuktu. Some people in Mali now think this could be the beginning of an-all out war against the culture that is the city's hallmark. Finally, we take a listen to Ivory Coast’s new musical craze. Bella Mondo is the country’s first all-girl band.
Guinea-Bissau's coup leaders released the country's ousted premier Carlos Gomes Junior and its interim president, Raimundo Pereira (pictured), on Friday after more than two weeks of detention and allowed the men to leave for Ivory Coast.
In Mali, our reporters spoke to Tuaregs in Bamako to get their take on the crisis in the north of the country. One year ago, Ivory Coast ended months of post-election violence by arresting Laurent Gbagbo - we look at how the country is doing one year on. And in Botswana, we meet the Bushmen who were forced out of their homes on an animal reserve.
The economy has rebounded and Laurent Gbagbo is at the International Criminal Court. But now comes the hard task of punishing the guilty among the winners and reconciling a nation where many are still too scared to go home.
The economy has rebounded and Laurent Gbagbo is at the International Criminal Court. But now comes the hard task of punishing the guilty among the winners and reconciling a nation where many are still too scared to go home.
Several hundred thousand Ivorians fled post-election violence a year ago. More than 150,000 refugees are thought to remain outside the country, as well as some 80,000 internally displaced people according to UN figures, the majority of whom are thought to have been pro-Gbagbo supporters. Many are asking for help from the government, which has been slow to respond. Our correspondent Maureen Grisot went to meet those who have been living for nearly a year in tents on the outskirts of Abidjan.
Members of the ECOWAS regional bloc are meeting for talks on Mali after threatening tough sanctions if constitutional order was not restored by Monday. Junta leaders vowed Sunday to reinstate the constitution as Timbuktu fell to Tuareg rebels.
Tuareg rebels said they had captured the historic desert town of Timbuktu on Sunday, the last major town in Mali's north that remained outside their control. One civilian died after he was struck by shrapnel during the offensive.
