2025 Budget Execution Raises Major Questions; Justice in the Dock

In Côte d’Ivoire, opposition lawmakers raised “major questions” about the execution of the 2025 budget and demanded detailed explanations from the government. Blessy Chrisosthome, president of the PDCI-RDA parliamentary group, described the surplus as misleading and said debt was consuming revenues, while the Agir group’s president called for tangible, verifiable results. Despite the criticism, members of the CAEF committee voted by a majority to approve Economy and Finance Minister Adama Coulibaly’s handling of the 2025 budget and the 2026 amended finance law. Newspapers also reported the bar association’s concerns about the criminalization of political activity, amid summonses issued to PDCI and PPA-CI figures by Abidjan’s anti-terrorism unit.