Authorities in Ivory Coast traded blame on Thursday for a toxic waste dumping scandal that has killed three people, made hundreds ill and forced the West African country's government to resign, according to Reuters. Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny offered the resignation of his cabinet to President Laurent Gbagbo during an emergency meeting in the political capital Yamoussoukro late on Wednesday, which had been meant to work out a response to the crisis. Gbagbo asked Banny to form a new cabinet on Thursday. The pungent waste, which contained hydrogen sulphide, was unloaded from a Panamanian-registered ship, the Probo Koala, at Abidjan port on Aug. 19 and then dumped in at least eight sites around the densely populated lagoon-side city. The government said three people had died and 1,500 had fallen ill. Hospitals struggled to cope, running low on medicines and X-ray film. One hospital manager said he had a queue of 200 people waiting for medical attention. "We've been told the cargo was loaded in Algeciras, Spain, from where it went to West Africa," Greenpeace international toxics campaigner Helen Perivier told Reuters, adding that the environmental group was investigating reports that the ship had been turned away from five other African countries. Environmentalists say developing countries are often targeted for the dumping of toxic waste because of weak regulation and corrupt local officials. Dutch-based Trafigura Beheer BV, one of the world's leading commodities traders, said it had chartered the ship and said the material was a "mixture of gasoline, water and caustic washings" following the unloading of a cargo of gasoline in Nigeria. "These slops from the Probo Koala were handed over to a certified local waste disposal company, Tommy, following Trafigura's communication to the authorities of the nature of the slops and a written request that the material should be safely disposed of," it said in comments emailed to Reuters. It denied other ports had refused to accept the slops. The government's resignation comes at a bad time for Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa grower, which was already heading towards a political crisis with long-delayed presidential elections due at the end of October set to be postponed again. It came a day after rival factions in the former French colony, split between a rebel-held north and government-run south after a brief 2002-2003 civil war, failed to reach agreement on key steps towards holding the polls. "This significantly deepens the political crisis because it was so difficult to reach a consensus among Ivorian parties about Banny and his government," said one Western diplomat. "It leaves nothing in place, nothing to roll over except Gbagbo." Ivorian state prosecutor Raymond Tchimou said three people linked to the firm responsible for unloading the ship had been arrested, while port officials and politicians traded blame. Abidjan's port commander said his staff had fully met their obligations and accused the customs service of failing to escort the truckloads of the substance after it was unloaded. The president of the National Assembly, Mamadou Koulibaly, accused Transport Minister Innocent Kobenan Anaky in comments published in an Ivorian newspaper of receiving money from the company that dumped the waste. Anaky told reporters his ministry had acted professionally and denied any "connivance or laxity". -SPA
