This is an interesting development in the story about the Ivory Coast toxic waste disaster. The BBC reports:

Two senior French officials of the company whose toxic waste has been dumped in Ivory Coast have been charged with poisoning, an official says.

Dutch-based company Trafigura Beheer BV says it is “shocked” and says the two had gone to help those affected by the waste, which has left seven dead.

Trafigura has always maintained it paid Ivorian firms and officials to dispose of the waste safely.

The timing of their arrest seems to have been a result of them trying to leave the country as much as actual culpability in the disaster. This echoes the already difficult position the French have been playing in the Ivory Coast as peacekeepers, as explained here by the BBC:

In recent years a quiet, relatively prosperous French client state has descended into chaos, and Paris has found it impossible to impose its authority.