News stories by Marc-Andre Boisvert

ABDIJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, Sep 26 (IPS) - In the middle of downtown Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, the aisles of a thriving supermarket are full of customers. But as they line up to pay for their items, there is one line to a cashier's till that remains empty. It's the "green cash register", where the cashier does not provide plastic bags as this supermarket tries to implement a green policy. 

KANDOPLEU/ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, Aug 26 (IPS) - The nurse carefully packs the body into a plastic bag and then leaves the isolation tent, rinsing his feet in a bucket of water that contains bleach. Then he carefully takes off his safety glasses, gloves and mask and burns them in a jerry can.

SALIAKRO/ABDIJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, Aug 01 (IPS) - François Kouamé, prisoner Number 67, proudly shows off a sow and her four piglets. Dressed in his rubber boots, he passes by two new tractors as he happily makes his way to a field where pretty soon cassava and corn plants will start growing. "Look at those sprouts. It is a lot of work!"

ABDIJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, Jun 04 (IPS) - Two years ago, it would have taken Catherine Adjoua almost an hour to travel from M'Badon, the isolated fishing area where she lives that has no asphalt roads, to reach her workplace some 13 kilometres away in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire's economic capital.

TAI NATIONAL PARK, Côte d’Ivoire, May 09 (IPS) - Jonas Sanhin Touan has big dreams. As he sits under a canopy, he greets the rare tourist to Gouleako, one of the many villages near the entrance of Côte d'Ivoire's Taï National Park, with a meal.

ABIDJAN, Apr 15 (IPS) - When Ivorian Thierry N'Doufou saw local school kids suffering under the weight of their backpacks full of textbooks, it sparked an idea of how to close the digital gap where it is the largest — in local schoolrooms.

ABIDJAN, Mar 27 (IPS) - "I'm middle class. Definitively," Sonia Anoh, a young and independent 30-year-old Ivorian tells IPS. Anoh has a master's degree, earns 1,470 dollars a month working in marketing, lives alone, owns a car and is now shopping for a home. 

ABIDJAN, Mar 19 (IPS) - In West Africa, the Malian and Ivorian political crises have resulted in the biggest number of refugees in the region. But brewing insecurity could mean that they will be unable to return home any time soon as armed groups remain a threat to West Africa.

ABIDJAN, Feb 25 (IPS) - Armand Konan stood in front of the Palais des Sports, a stadium in Abidjan's popular neighbourhood, Treichville, selling videos and speeches of former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo. "People need to remember what our president said...He is our president. And we want him back," Konan told IPS.

BAMAKO, Feb 13 (IPS) - Aminata Diarra last saw her brother, Malamine, a member of the Malian Red Berets, special forces loyal to ousted president Amadou Toumani Toure, alive on national television almost two years ago.