Cote d'Ivoire

Tonight I depart for Cote d'Ivoire for two weeks. It's another one of those trips I can't say too much about, in particular due to the boisterous, not to say unruly, Ivorian press. I'm told that we are likely to be Persons of Interest, which means I will have to be cautious about what gets said here. Hopefully, though, I will still have something interesting to say and relatively regular intervals in which to say it.

Cote d'Ivoire -- or Ivory Coast, as it is sometimes known in the English-speaking press -- is a West African country with notorious neighbours, including Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. A decade ago, it was relatively prosperous, with healthy exports of cocoa and coffee buoying its economy and a growing educated elite. The regional bureaus of many international organizations were headquartered there.

Today, most of those regional bureaus are situated in Dakar, Senegal. That's because Cote d'Ivoire (CdI from now on, because I'm lazy and anyway live in a world of acronyms) started to run into trouble in 1999. A coup sent then-President Bedie into exile in France. Politics became increasingly rickety, culminating in an uprising in 2002 that triggered a civil war. Fighting over the cocoa-producing areas was, naturally, particularly fierce. Equally predictably, warlords from Liberia and Sierra Leone jumped into the fray, making trouble in the west of the country.

A peace agreement was signed in 2007, crystallizing an uneasy truce between the government and the rebels. Elections have long been promised, but have still not materialized. A large UN peacekeeping operation, plus some French forces, remain in the country.

The capital, Yamassoukro, is not our destination. The lively city of Abidjan, the real centre of action, is where we will head. This trip also promises at least one visit to the bush.

I'm looking forward to this trip, even though the timing is not excellent for me. It's springtime in New York, and my brand-spanking new condo in Brooklyn has a roof terrace to die for. But I've long had a hankering for CdI, and friends have equipped me with a 'must-see' list that's pretty impressive.

More to come.