The InfoStride Forum

Once hailed as a model of stability, Ivory Coast has slipped into the kind of internal strife that has plagued many African countries.

•   Full name: The Republic of Ivory Coast
•   Population: 21.6 million (UN, 2010)
•   Capital: Yamoussoukro
•   Largest city: Abidjan
•   Area: 322,462 sq km (124,503 sq miles)
•   Major languages: French, indigenous languages
•   Major religions: Islam, Christianity, indigenous beliefs
•   Life expectancy: 58 years (men), 61 years (women) (UN)
•   Monetary unit: 1 CFA (Communaute Financiere Africaine) franc = 100 centimes
•   Main exports: Cocoa, coffee, tropical woods, petroleum, cotton, bananas, pineapples, palm oil, fish
•   GNI per capita: US $1,060 (World Bank, 2009)
•   Internet domain: .ci
•   International dialling code: +225

An armed rebellion in 2002 split the nation in two. Since then, peace deals have alternated with renewed violence as the country has slowly edged its way towards a political resolution of the conflict.

For more than three decades after independence under the leadership of its first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Ivory Coast was conspicuous for its religious and ethnic harmony and its well-developed economy.

All this ended when the late Robert Guei led a coup which toppled Felix Houphouet-Boigny's successor, Henri Bedie, in 1999.

Mr Bedie fled, but not before planting the seeds of ethnic discord by trying to stir up xenophobia against Muslim northerners, including his main rival, Alassane Ouattara.

This theme was also adopted by Mr Guei, who had Alassane Ouattara banned from the presidential election in 2000 because of his foreign parentage, and by the only serious contender allowed to run against Mr Guei, Laurent Gbagbo.

BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13287216)

Provides an overview of Ivory Coast, including key events and facts about this west African country recently plagued by civil war.

Attribution: CNN, BBC and IOL Africa.