Ivory Coast At The Brink Of Civil War

A view of the bay at Abidjan.

Rebels in the Ivory Coast have pushed south and taken a town formerly held by government loyalists. We reported last week of clashes in the southern port of Abidjan, and now appear to have taken a town in the Dix-huit-montagnes region,  Zouan-Hounien. This small provincial town near the Liberian border is not an important gain in itself, but marks a general escalation of hostilities.

This map (based on a map from Wikipedia) shows the rebel controlled areas in the north of the country, the government held regions in the south, and the "zone de confiance", or ZDC, a military buffer zone that was created in 2007. The Yellow stars mark the recent flashpoints, the red star the location of the town of Zouan-Hounien:

Tensions have been mounting in the Ivory Coast for several months following elections in November 2010 after sitting president Mr Gbagbo refused to accept defeat to Mr Ouattara. At this time of turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East, the UN and the international community must ensure that it doesn't forget the Ivory Coast, a return to war there would be a tragedy.

VIDEO: Up To 20 Killed In Gaddafi Air Strikes On Brega

News Ninja Current Events Trackers

With a tip of the hat to the Crisis Monitors on the fantastic Blogs Of War, I have introduced our very own Current Event Trackers.

This page (accessible from the navigation bar at the top of the page) will contain Twitter widgets running searches for major current events, updated in real time.

For now there's only one, following the Arab rebellions and protests, more will follow.

If you have any ideas for other trackers, let me know in the comments below.

Should Saif Gaddafi Take A Leaf Out Of German Defence Ministers Book?

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the German Defence minister has resigned after a scandal involving his PhD thesis.

The German aristocrat was found to have copied large sections of text from sources without attribution, including newspapers and a US government website.

After a backlash from the academic community, which led to a wider campaign in Germany, Guttenberg has finally stood down, stating that he was the minister for defence, not self defence.

Guttenberg is not however the only politician to be facing charges of plagiarism. Saif Gaddafi, son of Libya's beguiled leader Colonel Gaddafi and widely seen as his heir and right hand man, is caught up in a similar scandal.

Saif Gaddafi studied at the London School of Economics from 2003 - 2008, earning a masters degree and a doctorate. The LSE is investigating allegations that he plagiarised, or rather his ghost writer plagiarised, large sections of his thesis.

The institution received £300,000 from the Gaddafi regime and is under pressure to give this money to charity, and to revoke Saif Gaddafi's doctorate.

Last week Saif was questioned on whether he and his father would leave Libya. His response was:

 

"There are three plans, plan A, plan B, and plan C. Plan A is to live and die in Libya. Plan B is to live and die in Libya. Plan C is to live and die in Libya."

 

I see he hasn't forgotten how to copy and paste.

 

 

 

If you would like to help humiliate Saif Gaddafi, check out the Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi Thesis Wiki, where you can collaborate on finding evidence of plagiarism in the thesis.

 

UPDATED Mar 1: Map Of Areas Of Regime & Protester Control Within Libya

Map showing areas controlled by the Gaddafi regime (red) and anti-government protesters (green).

 

If you can help improve this information leave a comment below.

The European Court Of Political Correctness

The European Court of Justice has ruled that it is unlawful for insurance companies to offer cheaper insurance to female motorists despite the fact that they have fewer accidents. 

The change, which comes into force in 2012, will see women paying significantly more for their insurance, whilst men will pay slightly less - effectively being subsidised by their female counterparts.

Whilst gender equality is an important goal, this is not an example of it. Insurance companies assess the risk of insuring motorists based on many different demographic factors. If it is discriminatory to ask men to pay more, it follows that it is also discriminatory to ask younger people to pay more, or people who live in deprived areas with higher rates of vehicle crime.

Followed to it's logical conclusion, this decision by the European Court of Justice is, well, unjust.

Should The UN Deploy Peace Keeping Troops To Libya

Some commentators have drawn a parallel to Libya of the situation in Bosnia and later Kosovo in the 90's. There are similarities: an autocratic leader slaughtering his own people, use of the armed forces to carry out these atrocities, potential for the crisis to affect other states in the region.
There are however major differences. Firstly the Gaddafi regime doesn't have the kind of popular support that Milosovic enjoyed. Every day that passes sees his power base crumble still further as diplomats defect, the armed services switch to the side of the rebels, and more and more towns and cities become stable under opposition control.
Gaddafi now has a firm hold over only parts of Tripoli. Certainly he still has the support of a substantial part of his military, but as the crisis progresses there will be more defections, which will act as a vicious circle of waning support for the regime.
The deployment of foreign troops onto Libyan soil would likely make the situation worse, vindicating Gaddafi and his statements on the intents of foreign parties. This would without doubt stabilise the tyrants support at least.
Worse still military intervention could force the Gaddafi regime into deploying chemical weapons against his own people, or the peacekeeping troops.
Of course, if he does possess these weapons there is a risk that Gaddafi would use these weapons even without UN intervention - but as we saw with Libyan pilots flying to Malta, or ejecting instead of carrying out bombings against civilians, giving an order does not mean it will be executed. If Gaddafi did order his military to commit genocide I believe it would be the final straw in his own demise.
The UN must prepare and make itself ready, and do so quickly - Gaddafi is nothing if not unpredictable - but for now it must be calm and patient, and give this abominable regime a chance to destroy itself.