Ahead of Côte d’Ivoire’s October 2020 presidential election, the government is firmly focused on securing a win for President Alassane Dramane Ouattara’s Rassemblement des Houphouëtistes pour la Démocratie et la Paix (RHDP). For all the history-making import of the eco announcement, the visit by France’s President Emmanuel Macron in December was widely interpreted as being intended to show strong support for the incumbent president ahead of those polls, and shore up regional backing for France’s intervention in Mali and the wider conflict with jihadists in the Sahel, during a period when death tolls are rising sharply.