Ivory Coast: Humanitarian Intervention or Debt Collection?

MRzine
April 6, 2011
 
This just in from Bloomberg:

The West African nation's 2032 bonds issued a year ago jumped 7.7 percent to 55.438 cents on the dollar, the highest since Dec. 2, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.  The debt has rallied 14 percent in the past two days after Gbagbo troops surrendered. . . .  The country's $2.3 billion of bonds have lost 9 percent of their value since April, after falling as much as 43 percent to 35 cents on March 16.  The country was declared in default after missing a $29 million interest payment due the end of January as Gbagbo and Ouattara were locked in a political standoff. . . .  Gbagbo began negotiating an exit after French and United Nations forces destroyed most of his army's heavy weapons.  The United Nations, the U.S., the African Union and the European Union recognize Ouattara, 69, a former deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund, as the winner of the Nov. 28 election.

Now, let's look at how the multinational debt collection agency does its job.  Here is a video documenting the results of the French-UN bombing of residential areas in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

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Cf. "World Bank Ties Ivory Coast Debt Relief to Election" (Reuters, 29 January 2010); "World Bank, AfDB to Review Ivory Coast Lending Programs" (Reuters, 6 December 2010); Bruno Ben Moubamba, "Nicolas Sarkozy engage des actes de Guerre contraires au Droit International en Côte d'Ivoire" (4 April 2011); "Afirman que Costa de Marfil es víctima de una agresión imperial" (TeleSur, 5 April 2011); "Unión Africana condena intervenciones en Libia y Costa de Marfil" (TeleSur, 5 April 2011); Joseph Cotterill, "Life after Gbagbo: A View from the Bonds" (FT Alphaville, 5 April 2011).

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URL: mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/debt060411.html

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