Category Archives: Elfenbeinküste

A smoldering civil conflict flared up in West Africa’s cocoa-rich Cote d’Ivoire following a disputed Nov. 28 presidential election. Incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo, representing the country’s south, contested the U.N.-certified victory of Alassane Ouattara, from the rebellious north. In 2002 and 2003, northern rebels and southern loyalists — also divided along ethnic lines — waged a bloody civil war, spurring the deployment of a 6,000-man U.N. peacekeeping force and lapsing into a tenuous peace. Continue reading →