The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 2, January 9, 2005, Article 5

WEST AFRICA NOTES EXCHANGED

From a December 31, 2004 report:
"Under the watch of UN peacekeepers and rebel soldiers,
people lined up for hours on Thursday in Cote d'Ivoire's rebel
capital Bouake to swap old bank-notes for new in a last-minute
operation launched by the Central Bank of the States of
West Africa (BCEAO).

The BCEAO, which controls the CFA franc currency used
by eight nations in West Africa, launched a drive in mid-
September to withdraw billions of the aged crumpled notes
by 31 December and replace them with a new series.

But in northern Cote d'Ivoire banks have been closed since the
outbreak of civil war in September 2002. As a result, more
than six million people living under rebel control faced the
nightmare of being left with bags of worthless cash."

"The bank has said the crispy-clean new notes will be harder
to forge. But the introduction of the smaller bills will also
prevent the laundering of buckets of cash which have been
robbed from the BCEAO's coffers in Cote d'Ivoire.

Diplomats suspect that the rebels financed their insurgency
with the proceeds of a raid on the BCEAO's Ivorian head
office in Abidjan shortly before the civil war began. Rebe
fighters were subsequently blamed for a successful raid on
the bank's Bouake branch and attempted break-ins to the
BCEAO vaults in Man and Korhogo.

Soldiers serving with the French peacekeeping force in Cote
d'Ivoire have also been caught stealing notes from banks
they were guarding in rebel territory over the last 15 months.

The CFA franc, which is backed by the French treasury, was
introduced in 1945 to provide the then French colonies with
a stable currency."

To read the full story, see: Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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