Introduction and implications for the United States.(Cote d'Ivoire's Post-Election Crisis)(Report)

Cote d'Ivoire, a former French West African colony of 21.1 million people that is nearly as large as New Mexico and is the world's leading cocoa producer, has entered a renewed period of extreme political instability in the wake of a contested presidential election. The election was conducted under the terms of the most recent in a series of partially implemented peace agreements aimed at reunifying Cote d'Ivoire, which has remained largely divided between a government-controlled southern region and a rebel-controlled zone in the north since the outbreak of a civil war in 2002. The war, along with the political events that contributed to and followed it, is discussed Appendix B.