BY PETER SESAY AND LOU SIFA

Côte d’Ivoire, the world leading producer of cocoa and the economic engine of the 8-nation West African Economic and Monetary Union, has for decades been the shining star in West Africa’s generally-cloudy economic sky, a magnet that has attracted citizens of almost all other African nations in search of a green pasture, as well as western investors. But this important nation of twenty-six million people has also been shaken to its roots by multiple outbreaks of violence since the demise of its founding father, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, in 1994: the bogus, bloody election of Laurent Gbagbo in 2000 that sent hundreds of citizens to their death; the 2002 bloody rebellion which failed to overthrow Gbagbo but claimed hundreds of lives; and the post-election civil war of 2011 that resulted in the loss of 3,000 lives. So, when President Ouattara recently decided to run for a third term, many in this heavily-divided nation that is still hurting from the all-too-fresh wounds fear the return of the old demons—as do foreign observers.

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