The signs of war:

When you first leave the South behind and arrive into the rebel-held North of Côte d’Ivoire you can be forgiven for thinking that it is simply just another poor West African nation, with a rich coastal area but a poor inland zone. You may assume that the structures, buildings and economy were probably never any different from its neighbouring countries. But then over time you note that at night there are streetlights, even in small and remote towns; there are modern, multi storey buildings; and several large cities throughout the North with hotels and swimming pools; a web of tarmac stretching from North to South and East to West joins all these points on the map.

So what are the signs that war has hit this once powerhouse economy, how is it different from its poor neighbours in the North (countries to the West have been victims of poverty and war for a long time)? These are some of the things I noted in my time in the North.

There are the social signs, trained IT guys, photographers and the like who had businesses are now out of work, up to one third of young teenage girls in a village I worked in have babies of their own and they are not even sure who the father is, husbands are missing and families have been displaced when trying to escape conflict.

The influx of “foreign” people who manage the conflict itself and the relief efforts that follow it:

• Men everywhere in mismatched hotchpotch camouflage clothes are the Forces Nouvelles, AKA “the rebels”,

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• The blue helmet toting smartly camouflaged UN Peacekeepers from France, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
  
• Every second car is a huge white four wheel drive vehicle, Toyota Landcruisers or Landrovers, all emblazoned with UN in big bold black letters or tattooed with the brightly coloured logos of international charities, MSF, Red Cross, Save the Children, you name it - they are here to help.

Also note that roads which were once covered in tarmac (?) are now potholed, bumpy and often turned into a slush of mud during the rainy season.

Supermarkets, banks and government buildings have been burned down and destroyed, sand bags are still strewn outside to protect gunmen during fighting?

Gunfire holes in the sides of buildings and statues.

Peacekeepers food supplies on sale at stalls near to their camps (how did they get there, I don’t know?).

Broken down and burnt out cars are dotted along the side of the road.

Signs of a tourist industry gone to sleep in Man: half a dozen mask and artefact shops on one road, when now no one is there to buy these things, hotels with swimming pools and “guides” waiting for months or years for visitors so they can take them to masked dancers and vine bridges. All these people pounce on the expatriate NGO workers who also have a thirst for adventure on the weekend days and can provide a little bit of the income the tourist industry used to bring.