Violence Escalates

Ivorian refugees in Liberia. Photo credit: UNHCR

Yesterday, female Ouattara supporters staged a march protesting Gbagbo's refusal to step down from power. Female marches are not uncommon in CI and are often seen, according to France24, as a last resort against an army who will not back down. In response to the march, Gbagbo's forces sent out tanks and fired about the 1000's of women who were in the crowd. At least 7 women were killed. There are now hundreds of thousands of internally and externally displaced people in Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia. To add insult to injury, there is now an embargo on medications from the EU (thanks a lot, guys) so the health professionals are also protesting. It's going to take years for the region to recover from this situation.

However, big shout out to Angelina Jolie for trying to call attention to the CI problem. As Amy pointed out, at least her statement also talked about Libya so that more news outlets would pick it up.

One piece of stock advice: buy shares in cocoa now. It's at a 32 year high. Also, coffee might be a good idea as well. Just throwing that out there.