Hello again from Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire!!
A few words on the coming election.
The campaign is taking shape, with four challengers hoping to defeat longtime incumbent Alassane Ouattara on 25 October, but no candidates from the country's two main opposition parties.
While the run-up has so far been peaceful, voters could be disengaging from politics, in response to the lack of alternatives and forward-looking change...
Insight:
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More soon, tomorrow, in my podcast.
I'm in Côte d'Ivoire, where the presidential election is in two weeks.
President Alassane Ouattara running to try to get a fourth mandate at 83.
Campaigning in the whole of Cote d'Ivoire kicked off on Friday for this presidential election.
They have two weeks to win over voters ahead of the 25 October polls.
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Today the police prevented supporters of the opposition from manifesting in Cocody, Abidjan, the biggest economic hub of the country.
Members of Gbagbo's African Peoples' Party - Côte d'Ivoire (PPA-CI) wanted to protest against the elimination of the candidate from the race. The march was banned and some 213 people were arrested for attempting to march.
Here we can see a couple of police cars as they processed:
These men express their anger, as security forces arrested some of the rare protesters who dared to brave the ban. "We suffer here," they said.
Israel’s government ratified the ceasefire and hostage deal on Friday, clearing the way to suspend hostilities in Gaza within 24 hours
Hamas gets guarantees of end to Gaza war, Israel approves ceasefire.
Israel's government ratified a ceasefire with the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Friday, clearing the way to suspend hostilities in Gaza within 24 hours and free Israeli hostages held in Gaza within 72 hours after that.
The Israeli cabinet agreed to the deal early Friday morning, roughly 24 hours after mediators announced an agreement to free Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, in the first phase of US President Donald Trump's initiative to end the two-year war in Gaza.
"The government has just now approved the framework for the release of all of the hostages – the living and the deceased," Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's English-language X account said.
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'All of the Gaza strip is happy'
"Thank God for the ceasefire, the end of bloodshed and killing," said Abdul Majeed Abd Rabbo in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. "All of the Gaza Strip is happy, all the Arab people, all of the world is happy with the ceasefire and the end of bloodshed."
Einav Zaugauker, whose son Matan is one of the last hostages, rejoiced in Tel Aviv's so-called Hostages Square, where families of those seized in the Hamas attack that triggered the war two years ago have long assembled.
"I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't explain what I'm feeling ... it's crazy," she said, speaking in the red glow of a celebratory flare.
The ceasefire agreement follows days of crucial negotiations in Egypt mediated by the US, Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye. Over the past two years, Israeli attacks have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the population of Gaza and caused famine across the Strip.
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Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces
Prisoners' institutions say more than 11,100 are now in Israeli prisons, the highest number in decades. That includes 53 women and 400 children under the age of 18. Only 1,400 of detainees have been convicted and more than 3,500 are being held without charge or trial, under what Israel calls “administrative detention”.
More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza, launched after Hamas-led militants stormed through Israeli towns and a music festival on 7 October, 2023, killing about 1,100 people (among them above 670 Israeli civilians) and capturing 251 hostages.
Khaled El-Enany, 54, was up against Édouard Firmin Matoko, 69, of the Republic of Congo, and launched his campaign early in April 2023.
The vote took place as a secret ballot, for a four-year term.
Unesco's board, which represents 58 of the agency’s 194 member states, elected him with 55 votes. Matoko won two votes. The United States did not vote.
El-Enany was the favourite.
He had built strong regional backing and international alliances, and had been campaigning full-time for two years, receiving public support from the League of Arab Countries, the African Union and countries like Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey.
Matoko, for his part, entered the campaign late, only six months before the vote, and failed to overtake the favourite candidate at the finish line.
The selection will now be put forward for approval to Unesco members on 6 November, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, then the new director will take office on 14 November.
Just after leaving the plenary hall, El-Enany announced to the press that during the first 100 days, he would meet all representatives of the member states to develop a strategic plan for the future of the organisation.
The outgoing chief, French diplomat Audrey Azoulay, has completed the maximum two four-year terms.
In eight years, the French woman has had a profound impact on Unesco. Its budget has doubled, increasing from $450 million to $900 million per year. She has increased the UN agency's visibility and launched flagship projects, such as the reconstruction of Mosul in Iraq.
She has also highlighted African heritage: 19 sites have been inscribed on the World Heritage List since 2018, compared to only 11 under her predecessor.
Thirty-seven African intangible cultural heritage sites have also been added to Unesco's list, representing nearly half of the world's new entries.
The director-general's governance style was however often deemed "Jupiterian" by some, and has been described too top-down, leaving little room for NGOs and member state delegates.
"She has prioritised action over consultation," one diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told RFI.
Analysts agree. Anthropologist Lynn Meskell believes that Unesco has become "hostage to its member states," reduced to a technocratic agency that now avoids sensitive issues.
In her book A Future in Ruins, she speaks of "management of the impasse" and takes the example of Gaza. "On Gaza, there is almost nothing, it's really minimal," she wrote. "Unesco used to have the courage to take on these issues, to find mechanisms to bring states to dialogue, to find solutions, to be accountable to each other. Today, there is nothing."
Though Azoulay worked to diversify funding sources, the UN culture and education agency still receives about 8 percent of its budget from Washington, while the US announced its withdrawal this year, to take effect at the end of 2026. Its funding will then be cut.
The White House described Unesco as supporting "woke, divisive cultural and social causes" when Trump decided to pull the US out in July, repeating a move he took in his first term that was reversed by Joe Biden.
The agency was founded after World War Two to promote peace through international cooperation in education, science, and culture. It is best known for designating and protecting archaeological and heritage sites, from the Galapagos Islands to the tombs of Timbuktu.
"How come a country like Egypt, with its long history, with layers of Pharaonic, Greek, Roman, Coptic, Arab, Islamic civilisation, has not led this important organisation? This is not acceptable at all," Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said in Paris last week.
But El-Enany has faced criticism at home from conservationists who accused his ministry of failing to shield sensitive heritage sites in Cairo and the Sinai Peninsula.
The cultural institution aims at showcasing contemporary African and Afro-diasporic cultures, and hopes to become the African equivalent of the Arab World Institute, l'Institut du Monde Arabe.
It first - free - exhibition, Noires, is curated by artist Roxane Mbanga.
European governments are committed to massive rearmament. France's and the UK government are leading parts of it.
European anti-war campaigners are gearing up to respond with an international peace conference in Paris on 4-5 October.
On 4 October there will be an activist conference, with 5 October being the main conference. Over 2,000 have already registered to attend the main conference.
