With Eid-al Adha just days away, customers at a sheep market in Ivory Coast’s capital Abidjan are hoping to buy sheep to sacrifice for the Muslim festival. But supply is significantly down on last year and traders are driving hard bargains.
Buyers trudged through a muddy market in Abidjan, looking for the best-priced sheep to be sacrificed for Eid al-Adha, with traders driving hard bargains in the run-up to the Muslim festival.
Prices have shot up this year and animals are harder to come by as Ivory Coast's usual supply from neighbouring Sahel countries has been hit by export bans and conflict.
Ivory Coast depends heavily on imports to meet demand. Around 75 percent of the sheep and cattle needed for Tabaski, the name for Eid in west Africa, come from countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali. That amounts to about 350,000 animals.
But Burkina Faso halted livestock exports earlier this month to protect its domestic market, following a similar move by Niger in March.
