JERUSALEM: Israel warned France on Thursday of potential threats from Iran-backed groups against Israeli athletes and tourists in Paris during the Olympic Games.
“There are those who seek to harm the festivities of this joyous event,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz told his French counterpart in a letter, copies of which were released to the media.
“We currently have assessments of potential threats from Iranian terror affiliates and other terrorist organizations aiming to carry out terror attacks against members of the Israeli delegation and Israeli tourists during the Olympics.”
France has mounted a vast security operation to ensure the Olympics are safe. Around 18,000 French troops have been deployed to secure the Games in addition to regular police.
All Israeli athletes at the Paris Games, which start officially on Friday, will have round-the-clock personal security provided by elite French police, both inside the Olympic village and every time they leave the compound in northern Paris.
In an address to the US Congress on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a global alliance against the Iranian “axis of terror.”
He argued that the United States and Israel “must stand together” against Iran and its proxies.
Iran had hailed the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel but said it was not involved in it.
Tensions have soared during the war sparked by the attack, drawing in Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
Yemen’s Houthis, along with the Hezbollah group in Lebanon and former Iran-backed paramilitaries in the Iraqi armed forces, are part of a Tehran-aligned “axis of resistance” that supports Hamas against Israel and its allies.
Iran has reiterated support for the groups but insisted they are independent in their decision-making and actions.
On April 13-14, Iran carried out an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel, days after an air strike widely attributed to Israel levelled Iran’s consulate in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.
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Israel warns France of Iranian threats at Olympics Games
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Israel warns France of Iranian threats at Olympics Games
- “There are those who seek to harm the festivities of this joyous event,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz told his French counterpart
- “We currently have assessments of potential threats from Iranian terror affiliates“
Sellers under strain in Ivory Coast’s struggling shea industry
KORHOGO: With nuts scarce as the shea season draws to a close, buyer Souleymane Sangare’s warehouses in Ivory Coast’s northern city of Korhogo are empty.
In a country where shea production is modest and largely based in the north, sellers made up for the shortfall by sourcing from Mali and Burkina Faso.
But last year, the neighboring countries — among the world’s top shea crop producers — halted shea nut exports to boost local production.
The shea tree is a symbol of the dry African savannah. Its fruit contains a nut that women collect and sell raw, or process into butter for skincare or the food industry.
“Since they suspended exports, it has been hard to get nuts. And on top of that, this year Ivorian production has not been profitable enough,” said Sangare, a buyer at Korhogo market and vice president of the Ivorian Shea Network.
Gone are the mountains of nuts in his two warehouses — only a few sacks remain this year.
“I normally have between 3,500 and 4,000 tons of nuts per season. This year, I haven’t even managed 500 tons, two months after the start of the season” from mid-August to October, he said.
- Strong global demand -
In January, Ivory Coast also suspended exports of its nuts to secure supply for its own industry.
“We can’t criticize other countries for doing the same,” Mamadou Berte, head of the Cotton, Cashew and Shea Council, said.
Korhogo is home to the country’s first modern shea butter processing plant.
“I signed a contract to supply nuts to this plant, but I’m struggling to meet it because I can’t find enough,” Sangare told AFP.
Togo and Nigeria have also frozen raw nut exports. Ghana, for its part, plans a gradual ban starting in 2026.
Those decisions, combined with strong global demand — driven by shea butter’s use as a cheaper alternative to cocoa butter — have left the west African market under strain, according to consultancy N’Kalo.
As a result, prices have soared, while trade has faltered.
In Ivory Coast, the minimum farmgate price of 250 CFA francs ($0.44) per kilo has climbed to 350 CFA. Factory prices set at 305 CFA per kilo now range between 386 and 400 CFA, N’Kalo noted at the end of November.
- Slow market -
At least 152,000 women make a living from shea in natural production zones, according to the Ivorian agriculture ministry.
At the Chigata cooperative in Natio-Kobadara, near Korhogo, dozens of women toiled under a blazing sun to make butter.
Sacks of nuts were stacked in the yard, while mills whirred nonstop, churning out dense, chocolate-colored shea paste.
“Last year, we sold a kilo of shea butter for between 4,000 and 4,500 CFA francs — that’s something we have never seen in our lifetimes,” said Noulourou Assiata Soro, secretary general of the cooperative, which brings together more than 120 women.
She lamented, though, the lack of market outlets for their products.
However, “when it’s expensive, the market is slow,” said Tenin Silue, 49, who has been selling shea butter at Korhogo market for 10 years.
The 150-kilo sack of nuts that the cooperative used to buy for 60,000 CFA francs now costs 70,000, according to Soro.
The upward trend in prices is expected to continue in the coming months, marking the end of the harvest season in the west African shea market, where the supply of nuts remains very limited, according to N’Kalo.
In a country where shea production is modest and largely based in the north, sellers made up for the shortfall by sourcing from Mali and Burkina Faso.
But last year, the neighboring countries — among the world’s top shea crop producers — halted shea nut exports to boost local production.
The shea tree is a symbol of the dry African savannah. Its fruit contains a nut that women collect and sell raw, or process into butter for skincare or the food industry.
“Since they suspended exports, it has been hard to get nuts. And on top of that, this year Ivorian production has not been profitable enough,” said Sangare, a buyer at Korhogo market and vice president of the Ivorian Shea Network.
Gone are the mountains of nuts in his two warehouses — only a few sacks remain this year.
“I normally have between 3,500 and 4,000 tons of nuts per season. This year, I haven’t even managed 500 tons, two months after the start of the season” from mid-August to October, he said.
- Strong global demand -
In January, Ivory Coast also suspended exports of its nuts to secure supply for its own industry.
“We can’t criticize other countries for doing the same,” Mamadou Berte, head of the Cotton, Cashew and Shea Council, said.
Korhogo is home to the country’s first modern shea butter processing plant.
“I signed a contract to supply nuts to this plant, but I’m struggling to meet it because I can’t find enough,” Sangare told AFP.
Togo and Nigeria have also frozen raw nut exports. Ghana, for its part, plans a gradual ban starting in 2026.
Those decisions, combined with strong global demand — driven by shea butter’s use as a cheaper alternative to cocoa butter — have left the west African market under strain, according to consultancy N’Kalo.
As a result, prices have soared, while trade has faltered.
In Ivory Coast, the minimum farmgate price of 250 CFA francs ($0.44) per kilo has climbed to 350 CFA. Factory prices set at 305 CFA per kilo now range between 386 and 400 CFA, N’Kalo noted at the end of November.
- Slow market -
At least 152,000 women make a living from shea in natural production zones, according to the Ivorian agriculture ministry.
At the Chigata cooperative in Natio-Kobadara, near Korhogo, dozens of women toiled under a blazing sun to make butter.
Sacks of nuts were stacked in the yard, while mills whirred nonstop, churning out dense, chocolate-colored shea paste.
“Last year, we sold a kilo of shea butter for between 4,000 and 4,500 CFA francs — that’s something we have never seen in our lifetimes,” said Noulourou Assiata Soro, secretary general of the cooperative, which brings together more than 120 women.
She lamented, though, the lack of market outlets for their products.
However, “when it’s expensive, the market is slow,” said Tenin Silue, 49, who has been selling shea butter at Korhogo market for 10 years.
The 150-kilo sack of nuts that the cooperative used to buy for 60,000 CFA francs now costs 70,000, according to Soro.
The upward trend in prices is expected to continue in the coming months, marking the end of the harvest season in the west African shea market, where the supply of nuts remains very limited, according to N’Kalo.
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