By Adekunle Aliyu with agency report
Prices of food items in Cote d’Ivoire have shoot up due to sanctions imposed on the country by international community.

Photo: Reuters.

“It’s one of  the two ways, either we will pass through this or we might not,” an Ivorian banker, Mariam N’ Dri, said in Abidjan.

President Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to hand over power to the winner of a presidential election last year, Alassane Ouattara, has attracted international sanctions on banking, travelling, imports and exports.

Ouattara, a former Prime Minister, has used his influence to stop the export of cocoa, which is the mainstay of the country’s economy.

“The inflationary rate on food prices is high, ‘’ N’ Dri said,  adding,“I am afraid that many people will start losing their daily meals, which can result in malnutrition, sickness and deaths.”

NAN investigations showed that the price of staple food stuff like rice, beans and yam in Cote d’Ivoire had shot up by between 60 per cent and 80 per cent.

“We were selling a measure of rice between 350 CFA and 400 CFA before, now we sell between 550 CFA and 650 CFA , depending on how we buy the bag,” Amy Yao, a trader in Adjame market, told NAN.

Yao, who plies her trade of grains on the busy road of Adjame market, said the demand for foodstuff had dropped.

“Most people buy enough to eat for a day or two because there is no money,” she said.

In Angre-market, a kilogramme of meat which sold for 1, 500 CFA in November, had risen to  between 2, 000 CFA and 2, 500 CFA .

“The price of three tubers of yam is now between 2, 000 CFA and 2, 500 CFA, we were buying it for 1, 200 CFA before,” Christelle Fofana, who deals in house food stuff, said.

NAN reports that since cooking gas stations have dried up, Ivorians have resorted to using charcoals and trekking long distances in search of illegal and expensive reserves in shops.

“I paid between 9, 000 CFA and  fill a 12.5 kg cylinder and it was finished in less than two weeks. I learnt later that the quality was poor,” Dominique Togou said.

Togou said the official price for filling a cylinder was 4, 000 CFA.

In Vredi, Abidjan, NAN gathered that Oilibiya, a subsidiary of Exxon mobil and Total oil, supplied gas on Monday.

“The list of people we had was long so the little that was supplied was mopped up right in front of the depot,” a staff of Total said, on condition of anonymity.

NAN reports that a long, queue of people  besieged the Total depot in Vredi, waiting for another supply.

“We had our supply earlier in the morning, but it was all finished before midday, the problem is that a lot of people have waited for so long but the supply does not meet the demand,” a senior manager in Oilibiya said.

He said that the scarcity was due to the “general situation in the country with many sanctions, which had affected gas and oil import.

“The worst scenario is about to unfold because the banks are closing so even some of the cheques issued by some of our creditors can no longer be cashed.’’

Nigeria’s Access Bank Plc, BICICI, a subsidiary of the French BNP Paribas and the Citi bank of America in Abidjan has closed.

The banks said the “legal and regulatory environment’’ was no longer favourable for business.

According to a BICICI statement signed by its Managing Director, Yao Kouassi, some staff of the bank had received threats.

The West African Central bank, BCEAO, closed all its branches in Cote d’Ivoire in January, making it difficult for commercial and general banks to continue