ABIDJAN, Nov 7 (AFP) - Once considered a haven of peace and a rare west African economic success story, Ivory Coast has been in political and military crisis since a rebellion in September 2002 divided the country.
Following is a fact file on Ivory Coast:
- GEOGRAPHY: The Republic of Ivory Coast borders on Ghana, Liberia, Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso. It covers an area of 332,453 square kilometres (132,900 square miles).
- POPULATION: More than 15 million, of whom some 4.5 million were regional immigrants, according to the 2001 census. The population includes more than 60 ethnic groups. Thousands of immigrant workers fled for their home countries in west Africa because of the uprising and its aftermath.
- CAPITAL: The capital Yamoussoukro has a population of 150,000. Most government offices remain in Abidjan, the major economic centre with a population of around three million.
- LANGUAGE: French is the official language. Local languages include Dioula, Baoule and Bete.
- RELIGION: Muslim (40 percent); Christian, mainly Catholic (30 percent); animist (17 percent).
- HISTORY: Ivory Coast gained independence from France in 1960. Felix Houphouet-Boigny, made prime minister in 1959, became president in November 1960. He was leader of the Democratic Party of the Ivory Coast-Democratic African Rally (PDCI-RDA).
The PDCI was the only political party for three decades until Houphouet-Boigny was forced to adopt a multi-party system in 1990.
On his death in December 1993, he was succeeded by Henri Konan Bedie. Houphouet-Boigny's death saw an end to student and labour unrest, but presidential elections held on October 22, 1995, were marred by the worst violence since independence. The opposition boycotted the polls, won by Bedie with a reported 95 percent of the vote.
On December 23, 1999, an army mutiny led to the country's first coup d'etat a day later. A military junta was formed, led by General Robert Guei, and Bedie went into exile in France.
A new constitution was approved in a referendum in July 2000. This provided for presidential and legislative elections and was seen as a first step towards the return of a civil government.
The presidential poll in October saw the military junta allow only five of 19 candidates to run. Opposition leader Alassane Ouattara and ousted president Bedie were among those excluded from the vote, won by Laurent Gbagbo. Guei, who initially refused to accept defeat, was swept from power by a popular uprising.
In subsequent elections, Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party won 96 of 223 seats in parliament against the PDCI's 94.
September 2002 saw the start of a military uprising. Guei was killed at the outset.
A peace pact between rebels and the political parties was signed in Marcoussis, France, in January 2003, bringing the former rebels into a transitional government.
The country has remained divided, however, with the former rebels holding the north and parts of the west, while the army retains control of the south.
- ECONOMY: Ivory Coast is the world's leading cocoa producer with more than 40 percent of the market. It also produces coffee, bananas, pineapples, cotton, timber and rubber.
In December 2003, an International Monetary Fund team said the crisis had had "a major impact on economic growth, notably in the private sector, on industrial production and on public finances."
A 60 percent fall in traffic through the port of Abidjan, which in normal times accounted for more than 85 percent of national customs revenues, hit revenues hard.
The port also used to be a lifeline for several landlocked countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger which transported 60 percent of their produce -- roughly 600,000 tonnes -- from Abidjan by rail.
- GNP: 610 dollars per capita (World Bank, 2002)
- FOREIGN DEBT: About 15.2 billion dollars (12 billion euros)
- ARMED FORCES: 18,500 men before the rebellion.
The permanent French military presence of some 600 men has been reinforced to around 4,000. A UN peacekeeping mission numbers around 6,000.
11/07/2004 13:16 GMT - AFP