The Cote d’Ivoire is a story of boom and bust. With the help of slave labour the Cote d’Ivoire developed as a great trading nation while it was a French colony. It is still one the world’s largest producers of cocoa, coffee and palm oil.

While the Cote d’Ivoire was on the up and people streamed in from other countries looking for work but the bubble burst when prices for cocoa and coffee fell in the 1980s.

Ethnic tensions between Christians in the south and west and Muslims in the north continue to threaten violence and bring instability to the government.

The number of evangelical Christians has nearly doubled since 1990 – there are now over 700 churches in the capital Abidjan.

Different churches and denominations are coming together to pray for the country.

Worshipping spirits and objects has a strong hold in Cote d’Ivoire and gets mixed up in the churches as well. Pray that Christians would break free from spirit worship and find greater freedom in Jesus.

Pray that churches can work together to develop a strategy for evangelism and church planting, putting aside feelings of competition and pride.

Pray for the Calvary Ministries institute in Abidjan, who are committed to training missionaries to reach Muslims across French-speaking Africa – a massive area of need.

The urban population is exploding, doubling every 10 years, with every people group from Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Burkina Faso living in the capital. Pray for the resources and vision to see new disciples and churches grow.