Reporters

As the world's top cocoa producer, Ivory Coast faces many challenges – first and foremost the fight against illegal smuggling of this "brown gold". Some cocoa farmers consider the prices set by the state for their beans far too low. They prefer to sell the fruit of their harvest to traffickers, who then resell it across the border in Guinea or Liberia at much more attractive prices. This is a major loss of revenue for the Ivorian government, which also has to deal with the challenges of traceability and deforestation. Our Ivory Coast correspondents Julia Guggenheim and Damien Koffi investigate.

Press freedom is in crisis in the "world's largest democracy" with attacks against journalists, concentration of media ownership, pro-government bias and expulsions of foreign reporters. Since India's Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, several mainstream Indian TV channels have effectively turned into government mouthpieces.

In Port-au-Prince, nearly three million people are living in the grips of an asphyxiating gang war. The crisis continues despite the arrival of the first Kenyan police officers as part of a UN-backed multinational force to stem the violence. Although this international effort offers a glimmer of hope, few residents believe it could provide an effective or long-lasting solution. FRANCE 24's Catherine Norris-Trent and Roméo Langlois bring you behind the scenes of this exclusive 52-minute documentary. 

Rwandans are expected to re-elect Paul Kagame to a fourth term in next month's presidential election. Having guided the country since he put an end to the genocide of the Tutsis in 1994, the president presents himself as a father figure, guaranteeing stability and prosperity for millions of citizens. For the past 24 years, he has been re-elected with no less than 93 percent of the vote. Most Rwandans under the age of 30 have only known Kagame as head of state. But many observers describe his regime, in which only one opposition party is tolerated, as authoritarian. Although the overwhelming majority of young people fully back the presidential party, some are looking for change. Our reporters went to meet the "Kagame generation".

On May 24, a landslide devastated a whole village in one of the poorest regions of Papua New Guinea, a country north of Australia that's home to 10 million inhabitants. According to the UN, 670 people were killed but very few bodies have been found so far. A week after the disaster, our Asia correspondent Constantin Simon went to meet survivors – some of who are children who lost their entire families. Assistance is slow to arrive and is complicated by the ongoing violence. Papua New Guinea’s Enga province, where the disaster hit, is ravaged by tribal wars. 

Forest fires in Canada have never been quite so destructive. In 2023, some 15 million hectares – the equivalent of more than a quarter of mainland France – went up in flames. Canada is warming faster than the world as a whole and 2023, the world's hottest year on record, was inevitably challenging. Firefighters, rescue workers and residents of at-risk localities are learning to live with the ever-increasing risk of devastating fires. Our correspondents François Rihouay and Joanne Profeta report.    

In China, the ruling Communist Party encourages women to focus on motherhood and the home, rather than self-emancipation. While some Chinese feminists have tried to denounce the inequality and discrimination they face, their numbers are dwindling amid a crackdown by authorities. Our correspondents report.

In August 2013, a chemical attack using sarin gas was perpetrated in Syria’s Ghouta region, northeast of Damascus, killing some 1,400 people. Attributed to the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the crime remains unpunished to this day. But Syrian refugees in Europe are fighting for justice. Activists, lawyers and witnesses have set out to track down those responsible, some of whom live in France. Yet many obstacles remain: the few witnesses living in exile fear reprisals on their families who have stayed behind, while there is no access to Assad's Syria, making it impossible to carry out investigations on the ground. FRANCE 24's Dana Alboz brings us this exclusive 27-minute documentary. Warning: viewers may find some images upsetting.

Located off Morocco, Spain's Canary Islands are facing their worst migrant crisis since 2006. In just one year, 30,000 migrants have arrived on the archipelago. The smallest island, El Hierro, saw 4,000 arrive in January alone. Despite locals and NGOs coming together to help out, El Hierro is overwhelmed. FRANCE 24’s Clara Le Nagard and Armelle Exposito report, with Sarah Morris.

Japan's low birth and marriage rates would suggest that the country's citizens have given up on love. That assumption could not be further from the truth. Many Japanese are indeed searching for that special someone, just not the conventional kind. Despite Japan still lagging behind on LGBT+ rights (same-sex weddings are still illegal) the country has become a laboratory for new types of relationships – digital, solitary or even devoid of sex. Could it be a model for the future? Our reporters Alexis Brégère and Mélodie Sforza went to find out.