Abidjan sludge not toxic: company

The bleeding noses, the chest pains, the breathing problems. The dead and the sick. For the past month, the economic capital of West Africa's once-prosperous Ivory Coast has been crippled with a sickening stench after 500 tonnes of waste from a Dutch ship was dumped around Abidjan.

But the company, Trafigura, says the waste offloaded from the Probo Koala in August wasn't toxic.

What is was, though, was bargain hunting. The ship was going to give its cargo to a company at home in Amsterdam to dispose of. But the price was too high, a director of the company told the BBC.

So, off to Nigeria. But officials there couldn't get a decent price, either. But an Ivorian company offered the best deal, and the devastating consequences of that bargain hunting are well known by the thousands were fell sick.

Ivory Coast is a complex, complicated country that is once more toeing the line to civil war. But it deserves more than to be a dumping ground for European sludge.