A Limited Lens on Ivory Coast
I arrived here on the last commercial flight from Accra last Thursday. My initial plan was to join the rebels with other journalists. But when I first arrived, I was told not to try leaving the airport. It turned out it was changing hands between Gbagbo’s forces and the U.N. forces. There was quite a bit of fighting outside. I noticed there were four U.N. armored personnel carriers sitting out front. I grabbed my camera to run outside when I saw a couple of other foreigners talking with them. I jumped in and they took me back to their battalion. I’ve been with them since.
I have no idea how other people got out of the airport after that. Even now, the airport road is a little dangerous. Back then, it was reallydangerous.
I felt comfortable coming here because I’ve been covering Ivory Coast since the elections. I was familiar with the layout of Abidjan. I realized I was actually in a unique position, so I decided to stick it out.
Today, for the first time since I’ve been here, we got a chance to take a patrol to the U.N. headquarters. It’s on the other side of town, where most of the hotels are, as well as the presidential palace. It’s incredibly unstable. But today it seemed fairly calm. More people were sitting outside, or going to the market to try to get some food. Everybody was greeting the U.N. convoy — with smiles, with thumbs up, with cheers — and it was actually quite nice. When people see the U.N. convoy coming, a lot of them raise their hands to show that they’re not carrying weapons. Young men will raise their shirts; people will hold their hands out the window.
Unfortunately, we ran into trouble on the way back. In Abidjan, there are snipers in some of the buildings that have been abandoned. As we were driving, one of the peacekeepers heard there were some people in the building. I heard gunfire and dropped down inside the tank. That’s the problem right now — every few days there will be fighting and there will be a couple of days of quiet. Things are a bit calm now, but the U.N. is a very big target. So are foreigners.
I’m incredibly thankful for the U.N. peacekeepers, because without them I would not be able to work. They have always been very hospitable. They’ve shared their food; they’ve shared their water. The commanding officer has given up his sleeping quarters for a group of displaced people from the Lebanese community. There was an evacuation, so there are fewer people living here now, but at one point I think there were probably about 20.
There are days when it’s even too unsafe for the peacekeepers to go out. The U.N., N.G.O.’s, the French — almost all foreigners, and especially journalists, are targets. In January and March, it was incredibly difficult, but now it’s literally impossible to try and go out without any kind of armored vehicle.
The most difficult thing is trying to get photos that illustrate the situation. Still, I’m in a unique position, but most journalists are either stuck inside the hotels or just outside the city limits. There are a couple of local Ivorian photographers who are able to move about more freely, but as a foreigner, really, it’s an incredibly frustrating situation. There are many scenes that I wish to get close to, but I cannot stop to see what’s happening. I try and catch what I can.
I’m not even looking to get really great shots out here; I’m looking to get anything. When I was here in January and March, I was working a lot withRebecca Blackwell. Back then, you only had a couple of minutes to shoot. It made it very frustrating to get anything really good; we were just happy to get something. Now, you have no time at all. It’s not even about getting good photography; it’s about getting any kind of pictures.
It’s quite an amazing city. It used to be considered the Paris of West Africa. To see what has happened over the years, especially in the last few months, it’s really quite upsetting.
