Cote d’Ivoire
...00,000 children. Many Ivorians are displaced within their own country due to the fighting. More than 365,000 people have fled from violence in Cote d’Ivoire to safety in Burkina Faso over that last two years. Last November, President Laurent Gbagbo sent jets and helicopter gun ships to bomb rebel strongholds in north Cote d’Ivoire for three days. Several thousand French and West African troops remain in Cote d’Ivoire to maintain peace. One bombing raid killed nine of these French peacekeeping troops who quickly retaliated by knocking out the president’s small air force. This bombing painfully reminded those living in the north how real the war was and how real the chance of them dying due to bullet wound or bombing as well as poverty or neglect had come to be. HIV or Aids remains a problem in the Cote d’Ivoire especially in the Rebel North. Millions of people cannot get medical help in the territory under rebel control. Those that are diagnosed HIV positive and live in the north will most likely die without treatment. The only possibility of help would be traveling to Abidjan and recovering medication. This feat is hard one considering all of the boundaries one will need to cross. Ivorians without identification would never make it into the south. Most think that the Cote d’Ivoire looms on the edge of a HIV/Aids epidemic. There are an estimated 570,000 people in Cote d’Ivoire living with HIV/Aids. This number will continue to grow until a plan is formed to find treatment for those living in the north. The government in south Cote d’Ivoire is planning on holding elections in October of this year. This seems like an unfeasible plan to many onlookers. The peace that is being withheld in the country only remains because of the troops that inhabit most of the nation. As soon as the French make a decision to withdrawal troops or are as...