three equal vertical bands of orange (hoist side), white, and green; similar to the flag of Ireland , which is longer and has the colors reversed - green (hoist side), white, and orange; also similar to the flag of Italy , which is green (hoist side), white, and red; design was based on the flag of France

Coat of Arms

• tropical along coast, semiarid in far north; three seasons - warm and dry (November to March), hot and dry (March to May), hot and wet (June to October)

• 8 00 N, 5 00 W

• total: 3,110 km
  border countries: Burkina Faso 584 km, Ghana 668 km, Guinea 610 km, Liberia 716 km, Mali 532 km

• Western Africa , bordering the North Atlantic Ocean , between Ghana and Liberia

• petroleum, natural gas, diamonds, manganese, iron ore, cobalt, bauxite, copper, gold, nickel, tantalum, silica sand, clay, cocoa beans, coffee, palm oil, hydropower

• total: 322,460 sq km
  land: 318,000 sq km
  water: 4,460 sq km
• (Compare to other countries)

• mostly flat to undulating plains; mountains in northwest

• most of the inhabitants live along the sandy coastal region; apart from the capital area, the forested interior is sparsely populated

• Coming from the road!

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National parks & reserves

• Assagny National Park
  Banco National Park
  Comoé National Park
  Îles Eliotilés National Park
  Marahoué National Park
  Mont Nimba National Park
  Mont Péko National Park
  Mont Sângbé National Park
  Taï National Park

Not much is known about Côte d'Ivoire prior to the arrival of European ships in the 1460s. The major ethnic groups came relatively recently from neighbouring areas: the Kru people migrated from Liberia around 1600; the Senoufo and Lobi moved southward from Burkina Faso and Mali. It wasn't until the 18th and 19th centuries that the Akan people, including the Baoulé, migrated from Ghana into the eastern area of the country and the Malinké migrated from Guinea into the northwest.

Compared to neighbouring Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire suffered little from the slave trade. European slaving and merchant ships preferred other areas along the coast with better harbours. France took an interest in the 1840s, enticing local chiefs to grant French commercial traders a monopoly along the coast. Thereafter, the French built naval bases to keep out non-French traders and began a systematic conquest of the interior. They accomplished this only after a long war in the 1890s against Mandinka forces, mostly from Gambia. Guerilla warfare by the Baoulé and other eastern groups continued until 1917.

The French had one overriding goal: to stimulate the production of exports. Coffee, cocoa and palm oil crops were soon planted along the coast. Côte d'Ivoire stood out as the only West African country with a sizeable population of 'settlers'; elsewhere in West and Central Africa, the French and English were largely bureaucrats. As a result, a third of the cocoa, coffee and banana plantations were in the hands of French citizens and a hated forced-labour system became the backbone of the economy.

The son of a Baoulé chief, Félix Houphouët-Boigny was to become Côte d'Ivoire's father of independence. In 1944 he formed the country's first agricultural trade union for African cocoa farmers like himself. Annoyed that colonial policy favoured French plantation owners, they united to recruit migrant workers for their own farms. Houphouët-Boigny soon rose to prominence and within a year was elected to the French Parliament in Paris. A year later the French abolished forced labour. As Houphouët-Boigny grew fonder of money and power, and became more ingratiated with the French, he gradually dropped the more radical stance of his youth. France reciprocated by making him the first African to become a minister in a European government.

At the time of Côte d'Ivoire's independence in 1960, the country was easily French West Africa's most prosperous, contributing over 40% of the region's total exports. When Houphouët-Boigny became the country's first president, his government gave farmers good prices to further stimulate production. Coffee production increased significantly, catapulting Côte d'Ivoire into third place in total output behind Brazil and Colombia. Cocoa did the same; by 1979 the country was the world's leading producer. It also became Africa's leading exporter of pineapples and palm oil. Behind the scenes, it was French technicians who had masterminded the programme, which was often referred to as the 'Ivoirian miracle'. In the rest of Africa, Europeans were driven out following independence; in Côte d'Ivoire, they poured in. The French community grew from 10,000 to 50,000, most of them teachers and advisers. For 20 years, the economy maintained an annual growth rate of nearly 10% - the highest of Africa's non-oil exporting countries.

Politically, Houphouët-Boigny ruled with an iron hand. The press wasn't free, and only one political party was tolerated. Houphouët-Boigny was also Africa's number one producer of 'show' projects. So many millions of dollars were spent transforming his village, Yamoussoukro, into the new capital that it became the butt of jokes. No one was laughing by the early 1980s though, when the world recession and a local drought sent shockwaves through the Ivoirian economy. Thanks also to the overcutting of timber and collapsing sugar prices, the country's external debt increased threefold. Rising crime in Abidjan made news in Europe. The miracle was over.

In 1990, hundreds of civil servants went on strike, joined by students protesting institutional corruption. The unrest forced the government to support multiparty democracy. Houphouët-Boigny became increasingly feeble and died in 1993. His hand-picked successor was Henri Konan Bédié.

In October 1995, Bédié overwhelmingly won re-election against a fragmented and disorganised opposition. He tightened his hold over political life, sending several hundred opposition supporters to jail. In contrast, the economic outlook improved, at least superficially, with decreasing inflation and an attempt to remove foreign debt.

Unlike Houphouët-Boigny, who was very careful in avoiding any ethnic conflict and left access to Ivorian nationality wide-open to immigrants from neighbouring countries, Bedié emphasized the concept of "Ivority" (Ivoirité) to exclude his rival Alassane Ouattara, having only one parent of Ivory Coast nationality, to run for future presidential election. As people originating from Burkina Faso are a large part of the Ivorian population this policy resulted in the exclusion of many people from Ivorian nationality and relationship between various ethnic groups became strained.

In parallel, Bédié excluded many potential opponents from the army. In late 1999, a group of dissatisfied officers staged a military coup putting General Robert Guéi in power, Bédié fled into exile in France. The coup had the effect of reducing crime and corruption, and the generals pressed for austerity and openly campaigned in the streets for a less wasteful society.

An election was held in October 2000 in which Laurent Gbagbo vied with Robert Guéi for the presidency, but it was neither peaceful nor democratic. The lead up to the elections was marked by military and civil unrest. Guéi's attempt to fix the election led to a public uprising, resulting in around 180 deaths and his swift replacement by the elections' likely winner, Gbagbo. Alassane Ouattara, was disqualified by the country's Supreme Court, which based his ineligibility on his Burkinabé nationality. The disqualification sparked violent protests in which his supporters, mainly from the country's Muslim north, battled riot police in the capital, Yamoussoukro.

On September 19, 2002, troops mutinied and gained control of the north of the country. In Abidjan, the gendarmerie was seized by the rebels and former president Guéi was murdered with fifteen persons in his home. Alassane Ouattara took refuge in the French embassy. What exactly happened on the night of September 19 is confused; some report the events as a military coup attempt, but other sources report that opponents were executed by pro-Gbagbo death squads and that the rebellion was an unplanned reaction.

An early ceasefire with the rebels, who had the full backing of the northern populace (mostly of Burkinabé origins), proved short-lived and fighting over the prime cocoa-growing areas resumed. France sent in troops to maintain the cease-fire boundaries, and militias, including warlords and fighters from Liberia and Sierra Leone, took advantage of the crisis to seize parts of the west.

In January 2003, President Gbagbo and rebel leaders signed accords creating a 'government of national unity'. Curfews were lifted and French troops cleaned up the lawless western border of the country. But the central problems remained, and neither side achieved its goals.

Since then, the unity government has proven extremely unstable. In March 2004, 120 people were killed in an opposition rally. A later report concluded the killings were planned. Though UN peacekeepers were deployed, relations between Gbagbo and the opposition continued to deteriorate. From Wikipedia.

Officially becames a French colony.

Captain Binger, who had explored the Gold Coast frontier, was named the first governor. He negotiated boundary treaties with Liberia and the United Kingdom (for the Gold Coast) and later started the campaign against Almany Samory, a Malinke chief, who fought against the French until 1898.

Cote d'Ivoire was a constituent unit of the Federation of French West Africa. It was a colony and an overseas territory under the French Third Republic.

Until the period following World War II, governmental affairs in French West Africa were administered from Paris. France's policy in West Africa was reflected mainly in its philosophy of "association," meaning that all Africans in Cote d'Ivoire were officially French "subjects" without rights to citizenship or representation in Africa or France.

The Brazzaville Conference in 1944, the first Constituent Assembly of the French Fourth Republic in 1946, and France's gratitude for African loyalty during World War II led to far-reaching governmental reforms in 1946. French citizenship was granted to all African "subjects," the right to organize politically was recognized, and various forms of forced labor were abolished.

After World War II, Houphouet-Boigny was elected by a narrow margin to the first Constituent Assembly. Representing Cote d'Ivoire in the French National Assembly from 1946 to 1959, he devoted much of his effort to inter-territorial political organization and further amelioration of labor conditions.

After his 13-year service in the French National Assembly, including almost 3 years as a minister in the French Government, Houphouet-Boigny became Cote d'Ivoire's first Prime Minister in April, and the following year was elected its first President.

In May, Houphouet-Boigny reinforced his position as a dominant figure in West Africa by leading Cote d'Ivoire, Niger, Upper Volta (Burkina), and Dahomey (Benin) into the Council of the Entente, a regional organization promoting economic development. He maintained that the road to African solidarity was through step-by-step economic and political cooperation, recognizing the principle of nonintervention in the internal affairs of other African states.

In a region where many political systems are unstable, Cote d'Ivoire showed remarkable political stability from its independence from France in 1960 until late 1999. Under Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Cote d'Ivoire maintained a close political allegiance to the West while many countries in the region were undergoing repeated military coups, experimenting with Marxism, and developing ties with the Soviet Union and China.

His successor, President Henri Konan Bedie, was familiar with the U.S., having served as Cote d'Ivoire's first ambassador to the U.S. Falling world market prices for Cote d'Ivoire's primary export crops of cocoa and coffee put pressure on the economy and the Bedie presidency. Government corruption and mismanagement led to steep reductions in foreign aid in 1998 and 1999, and eventually to the country's first coup on December 24, 1999. Following the bloodless coup, General Guei formed a government of national unity and promised open elections.

A new constitution was drafted and ratified by the population in the summer. It retained clauses that underscored national divisions between north and south, Christian and Muslim, that had been growing since Houphouet's death.

Elections were scheduled for fall 2000, but when the general's handpicked Supreme Court disqualified all of the candidates from the two major parties--the PDCI and Rassemblement des Republicaines (RDR)--Western election support and monitors were withdrawn. The RDR called for a boycott, setting the stage for low election turnout in a race between Guei and Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI) candidate Laurent Gbagbo. When early polling results showed Gbagbo in the lead, Guei stopped the process--claiming polling fraud--disbanded the election commission, and declared himself the winner.

Within hours Gbagbo supporters took to the streets of Abidjan. A bloody fight followed as crowds attacked the guards protecting the presidential palace. Many gendarmes and soldiers joined the fight against the junta government, forcing Guei to flee. Having gained the most votes, Gbagbo was declared President. The RDR then took the streets, calling for new elections because the Supreme Court had declared their presidential candidate and all the candidates of the PDCI ineligible. More violence erupted as forces loyal to the new government joined the FPI youth to attack RDR demonstrators. Hundreds were killed in the few days that followed before RDR party leader Alassane Ouattara called for peace and recognized the Gbagbo presidency.

On January 7, another coup attempt shattered the temporary calm. However, some weeks later, in the spring, local municipal elections were conducted without violence and with the full participation of all political parties. The RDR, which had boycotted the presidential and legislative elections, won the most local seats, followed by the PDCI and FPI.

Some economic aid from the European Union began to return by the summer of 2001, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) re-engaged the government. Questions surrounding severe human rights abuses by the government during the presidential and legislative elections of 2000 remain unresolved (e.g., the mass grave at Yopougon), but day-to-day life began to return to normal.

In August, President Gbagbo formed a de facto government of national unity that included the RDR party.

On September 19, 2002, rebellious exiled military personnel and co-conspirators in Abidjan simultaneously attacked government ministers and government and military/security facilities in Abidjan, Bouake, and Korhogo. In Abidjan, government forces stopped the coup attempt within hours, but the attacks resulted in the deaths of Minister of Interior Emile Boga Doudou and several high-ranking military officers. General Guei was killed under still-unclear circumstances. Almost immediately after the coup attempt, the government launched an aggressive security operation in Abidjan, whereby shantytowns--occupied by thousands of immigrants and Ivoirians--were searched for weapons and rebels. Government security forces burned down or demolished a number of these shantytowns, which displaced over 12,000 people.

The failed coup attempt quickly evolved into a rebellion, splitting the country in two and escalating into the country's worst crisis since independence in 1960. The rebel group, calling itself the "Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire" (MPCI), retained control in Bouake and Korhogo, and within 2 weeks moved to take the remainder of the northern half of the country. In mid-October 2002, government and MPCI representatives signed a ceasefire and French military forces already present in the country agreed to monitor the ceasefire line.

In late November 2002, the western part of the country became a new military front with the emergence of two new rebel groups--the Ivoirian Popular Movement for the Great West (MPIGO) and the Movement for Justice and Peace (MJP). MPIGO and MJP were allied with the MPCI, and the three groups subsequently called themselves the "New Forces."

In January, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) placed approximately 1,500 peacekeeping troops from five countries--Senegal (commander), Ghana, Benin, Togo, and Niger--on the ground beside the 3,000 French peacekeepers. The troops maintained the east-west ceasefire line dividing the country.

In late January, the country's major political parties and the New Forces signed the French-brokered Linas-Marcoussis Accord (LMA), agreeing to a power-sharing national reconciliation government to include rebel New Forces representatives. The parties agreed to work together on modifying national identity, eligibility for citizenship, and land tenure laws which many observers see as among the root causes of the conflict. The LMA also stipulated a UN Monitoring Committee to report on implementation of the accord.

Also in January, President Gbagbo appointed Seydou Diarra as the consensus Prime Minister. In March, Prime Minister Diarra formed a government of national reconciliation of 41 ministers. The full government did not meet until mid-April, when international peacekeepers were in place to provide security for rebel New Forces ministers.

On July 4, the government and New Forces militaries signed an "End of the War" declaration, recognized President Gbagbo's authority, and vowed to work for the implementation of the LMA and a program of Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR).

On September 13, six months after the formation of the reconciliation government, President Gbagbo named politically neutral Defense and Security Ministers, after consulting with the political parties and New Forces.

2004 saw serious challenges to the Linas-Marcoussis Accord. Violent flare-ups and political deadlock in the spring and summer led to the Accra III talks in Ghana.

Signed on July 30,, the Accra III Agreement reaffirmed the goals of the LMA with specific deadlines and benchmarks for progress. Unfortunately, those deadlines--late September for legislative reform and October 15 for rebel disarmament--were not met by the parties. The ensuing political and military deadlock was not broken until November 4, when government forces initiated a bombing campaign of rebel targets in the north.

On November 6, a government aircraft bombed a French military installation in Bouake, killing nine French soldiers and one American civilian. Claiming that the attack was deliberate (the Ivoirian Government claimed it was a mistake), French forces retaliated by destroying most of the small Ivoirian air force. Mayhem ensued for several days as anti-French mobs rioted in Abidjan and violence flared elsewhere.

On November 15, the United Nations Security Council issued an immediate arms embargo on Cote d'Ivoire and gave leaders one month to get the peace process back on track or face a travel ban and a freeze on their assets.

In April 2005, South African President Thabo Mbeki invited the leaders to South Africa for an African Union-sponsored mediation effort. The result was the Pretoria Agreement, signed April 6. The Pretoria Agreement formally ended the country's state of war, and addressed issues such as Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, the return of New Forces Ministers to government, and the reorganization of the Independent Electoral Commission.

In June, massacres in western town of Duekoue. President Gbagbo says more than 100 people were killed, but contradicts widely-held view that ethnic rifts lay behind violence.

A follow-up agreement in June laid out another framework for disarmament, elections, and the adoption of legislation required under the Linas-Marcoussis Accord. In September, the government postponed presidential elections scheduled for October 30.

Planned elections are shelved in October as President Gbagbo invokes a law which he says allows him to stay in power.

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• Akan 42.1%, Voltaiques or Gur 17.6%, Northern Mandes 16.5%, Krous 11%, Southern Mandes 10%, other 2.8% (includes 130,000 Lebanese and 14,000 French) (1998)

• adult prevalence rate: 7% (2003 est.) (Compare to other countries)
• people living with HIV/AIDS: 570,000 (2003 est.) (Compare to other countries)

• total: 90.83 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 107.64 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 73.52 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

• French (official), 60 native dialects with Dioula the most widely spoken

• total population: 48.62 years
  male: 46.05 years
  female: 51.27 years (2005 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

• total population: 50.9%
  male: 57.9%
  female: 43.6% (2003 est.)

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• noun: Ivoirian(s)
  adjective: Ivoirian

• 17,298,040 note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2005 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

• 2.06% (2005 est.)

• Christian 20-30%, Muslim 35-40%, indigenous 25-40% (2001) note: the majority of foreigners (migratory workers) are Muslim (70%) and Christian (20%)

School enrollment
(% relevant age group) From UNESCO.

• Net primary enrollment: 60.9% (2000)
• Net secondary enrollment: NA

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• 4.58 children born/woman (2005 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

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• Cities: Principal city -- Abidjan (economic capital, de facto political capital). Capital --Yamoussoukro (official). Other cities -- Bouake , Daloa, Gagnoa, Korhogo, Man, San Pedro.

• Yamoussoukro; note - although Yamoussoukro has been the official capital since 1983, Abidjan remains the commercial and administrative center

• chief of state: President Laurent GBAGBO (since 26 October 2000);
  head of government: Prime Minister Seydou DIARRA (since 25 January 2003); note - appointed as transitional Prime Minister by President GBAGBO as part of a French brokered peace plan
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term; election last held 26 October 2000 (next to be held October 2005); prime minister appointed by the president

• republic; multiparty presidential regime established 1960

• Jan 1 - New Year’s Day
• Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) (changes)
• Easter Monday (changes)
• Mouloud (Birth of the Prophet) (changes)
• May 1 - Labour Day
• Ascension (changes)
• Whit Monday (changes)
• Aug 7 - Independence Day
• Aug 15 - Assumption
• Lailat al Miraj (Ascent of the Prophet) (changes)
• Nov 1 - All Saints’ Day
• Eid al-Fitr (End of Ramadan) (changes)
• Nov 9 - Day of Mourning
• Nov 15 - Peace Day
• Dec 7 - Félix Houphouët-Boigny Remembrance Day
• Dec 25 - Christmas

• 7 August 1960 (from France )

• unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (225 seats; members are elected in single- and multi-district elections by direct popular vote to serve five-year terms)

• Abidjan; Bouaké; Yamoussoukro; Daloa; Korhogo

• L'Abidjanaise (Click here for full anthem)

• 37 (2004 est.)(paved 7, 30 unpaved) (Compare to other countries)

• total: 50,400 km
  paved: 4,889 km
  unpaved: 45,511 km (1999 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

• Abidjan , Aboisso, Dabou, San-Pedro

Fixed lines
& mobile telephones
(per 1,000 people)
(From ITU)

• 49.8 m (2000)
• 91.3 m (2003)

• +225

• .ci

• 90,000 (2002)
• (Compare to other countries)

Press

• 24 Heures
• Fraternité Matin
• L'Inter
• Le Front
• Le Jour
• Le Patriote
• Notre Voie
• Soir Info

TV

• Radiodiffusion Television Ivoirienne (RTI)

Radio

• Africa No1
• Radiodiffusion Television Ivoirienne (RTI)
• Radio Nostalgie -
• Radio Espoir
• Radio Paix Sanwi

• 6.1 (2000)
• NA (2003)

• .10 (2000)
• .10 (2003)

• 328,000 (2003)
• (Compare to other countries)

• 1.236 million (2003)
• (Compare to other countries)

• UTC/GMT 0 (no offset)
• Find the local time: Time and Date

• coffee, cocoa beans, bananas, palm kernels, corn, rice, manioc (tapioca), sweet potatoes, sugar, cotton, rubber; timber

• Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note - responsible authority is the Central Bank of the West African States
• Currency converter

• Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar - 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001), 711.98 (2000)

• cocoa, coffee, timber, petroleum, cotton, bananas, pineapples, palm oil, fish

• US 11.3%, Netherlands 10.1%, France 9.4%, Italy 5.3%, Belgium 4.7%, Germany 4.3% (2004)

• calendar year

• purchasing power parity - $24.78 billion (2004 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

• -1% (2004 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

• fuel, capital equipment, foodstuffs

• France 24.7%, Nigeria 18.5%, Italy 4% (2004)

• foodstuffs, beverages; wood products, oil refining, truck and bus assembly, textiles, fertilizer, building materials, electricity, ship construction and repair

• 1.4% (2004 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

• 37% (1995)

• 13% in urban areas (1998)
• (Compare to other countries)

• Basilique de Notre Dame de la Paix
• Grand Bassam beach
• Parc National de la Comoë - largest and best known wildlife national parks
• Parc National de Taï rainforest
• Yamoussoukro - capital

• 180,000 (2003)

• All visitors need a visa except for nationals of the US and nationals of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries.

• Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve (1981, 1982) *
• Taï National Park (1982)
• Comoé National Park (1983)

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• 24 Heures
• Fraternité Matin
• L'Inter
• Le Front
• Le Jour
• Le Patriote
• Notre Voie
• Soir Info