Abidjan - The African Mirror

Jul

2023

Seven killed in building collapse in Ivory Coast

A six-storey building collapsed while under construction in Ivory Coast's commercial capital Abidjan, killing at least seven of the builders on site, firefighters at the scene said. Around midday local time, the workers heard cracking sounds and the building started to crumble around them, said caretaker and builder Jourdin Yoro. "In a rush, we started to run," Yoro said. "Within about 45 seconds, the building collapsed." Rescue efforts were ongoing at the site in Abidjan's upscale Riviera Palmeraie district on Saturday with emergency workers searching through a vast pile of shattered concrete and debris. A further nine people were wounded…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Meet the phone that ‘speaks’ 50 African languages

NEWS

ANGE KUMASI, BIRD STORY AGENCY WHEN David Kouamé decided to improve his literacy in his mother tongue, he went to the city centre in Abidjan not to register for tutoring services, but to buy a mobile phone. Kouamé had heard about a new, locally developed and assembled smartphone with a voice control system that can understand 50 African languages. "It is important to speak our African languages and teach them to our children. When I heard about this phone, I knew I had to get it. I'm very happy to have this superphone as I can speak my mother tongue…

Nov

2022

By The African Mirror

FIFA brings football training to Ivory Coast classrooms

SPORT

CHILDREN at primary schools in Abidjan traded classrooms for football fields last week to take part in a FIFA initiative to make the sport more accessible and contribute to education. Ivory Coast is the first country in West Africa and the fifth on the continent to join FIFA's "Football for Schools" (F4S) programme, launched in 2019 with pilot projects in Puerto Rico and Lebanon. Children in yellow bibs and white jerseys practised passes and dribbled between cones under the guidance of FIFA instructors. Fatimata Sow Sidibe Director of FIFA Football for Schools gives a symbolic ball to Yacine Idriss Diallo…

Mar

2022

By The African Mirror

4 die in Ivory Coast building collapse

NEWS

AT least six people, including two children, died when an apartment block collapsed in Ivory Coast's commercial capital of Abidjan overnight, the fire brigade said. Rescuers used torches to search through the mounds of broken concrete and carried out 36 people alive, officials said. One firefighter cradled a baby in the back of an ambulance. "Everything was trembling," said survivor Ladji Doumbia, who lived on the fourth floor. "I was stumbling from left to right and then, at the last minute, I heard a loud noise." Prime Minister Patrick Achi visited the site and promised an investigation into the cause…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Ivory Coast sends mobile clinics to speed up COVID vaccinations

COVID-19

IVORY Coast has begun sending mobile clinics to markets and other busy areas in its main city Abidjan in an effort to turbocharge the vaccination campaign against COVID-19. After administering fewer than 800,000 doses since vaccinations began in March - enough for a single dose for just 3% of the population - Ivorian health authorities are now aiming to inoculate a million people in Abidjan over the next 10 days. While acknowledging that will be a tall order, they hope to pick up the pace by targeting some of Abidjan's most frequented places, especially its vast open-air markets where most…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

A post-election crisis could scupper Ivory Coast’s economic gains

BUSINESS

ANGE ABOA and AARON ROSS AS sleek highway overpasses and shopping malls sprouted in Ivory Coast's commercial capital Abidjan following the 2010-11 civil war, investors often pointed to 2020 as the year that could unleash the country's full economic potential. A successful transfer of power when President Alassane Ouattara's second term expired, they said, would help banish memories of the disputed 2010 election that led to the war and attract other investors still wary about instability. But as Ivory Coast heads toward an election on Saturday that Ouattara is unexpectedly contesting and his main opponents are trying to sabotage, that…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

Ivory Coast police fire teargas at supporters of former president

NEWS

POLICE fired teargas to disperse a protest in the commercial capital, Abidjan, on Thursday against the exclusion of former President Laurent Gbagbo and others from the voter rolls for October's presidential election. Hundreds of protesters had gathered outside the national electoral commission's headquarters to demand that Gbagbo, his ally Charles Ble Goude and former prime minister Guillaume Soro be included in the rolls, a Reuters witness said. Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara. Photo: Presidency of the Republic of Benin The electoral commission said the three were not included because of criminal convictions and that it will consider appeals against their…