I'm so pleased, mrrzy, that you started this thread, as I'd wondered too if anyone had even noticed the terrible situation over there. My husband is Ivorian, from Abidjan, but his ancestral village is in the north, near Tengrila. Gbagbo wants to cut the country in half, excluding those from the north, as he says they aren't true Ivorians. My poor husband is worried sick for his family in Abidjan, especially his aged parents who live in squalor. There are indeed corpses on the streets, no rubbish has been cleared for YEARS, and there is a curfew from 6pm to 8am. Shots are being fired all night, everyone is terrified. Alessande was elected fairly in TWO supervised elections, but Gbagbo refuses to go. Civil war is imminent. No banks or Western Union offices are open, we can't send financial aid. My husband's much-loved uncle has gone blind and we want to pay for cataract removal, but he will have to go to Bamako in Mali. However the roads are blocked and too dangerous. Anarchy is everywhere. Obviously, as they aren't 'world players', Ivory Coast doesn't even merit a mention on the News. We pray for them constantly.