Ivory Coast needs elections next year to end a conflict which is ruining the once-prosperous nation's economy, leaving many Ivorians to face hunger or emigrate in search of work, an opposition leader said on Friday, according to Reuters. Alassane Ouattara urged President Laurent Gbagbo to press ahead with U.N.-mandated polls to unite the former French colony after the New Forces rebels seized its north in a brief 2002-03 civil war. "The degradation of our country on an economic level is an undeniable reality. All the indicators are in the red," Ouattara said in an end-of-year message published in the press. "Who would have imagined a few years ago that many Ivorians could not afford two meals a day and would not have the means to look after themselves? "Amid uncertainty or conquered by despair, many people are emigrating for other countries," he said.
