As news came through that former President Laurent Gbagbo had been taken prisoner, which possibly marks the end to hostilities in the Ivory Coast, the EU announced that it has decided to lift sanctions on two key ports, as requested by Alassane Outtara, the West African country’s internationally recognised president.
The EU has also set into motion a fast tracking procedure to remove the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro from a list of entities subjected to an assets freeze.
As news came through that former President Laurent Gbagbo had been taken prisoner, which possibly marks the end to hostilities in the Ivory Coast, the EU announced that it has decided to lift sanctions on two key ports, as requested by Alassane Outtara, the West African country’s internationally recognised president.
The EU has also set into motion a fast tracking procedure to remove the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro from a list of entities subjected to an assets freeze.
In addition the country’s cocoa and coffee CGFCC management and marketing body and the Ivorian Refining Company were also removed from the list. The EU imposed sanctions against Laurent Gbagbo and several economic entities to pressure him to step down following November elections, which the international community says Ouattara won.
By partly removing the sanctions (all sanctions may soon fall away following the capture of Gbagbo) the EU hopes to help revive Ivory Coast’s damaged economy. The country is the world’s top cocoa producer and cocoa and coffee together represent 40% of Ivory Coast’s export revenues and a fifth of its gross domestic product (GDP).
Ivory Coast has potentially one of the stronger economies in sub-Saharan Africa, but internal strife has eroded much of that potential.
Discussion about this post