IT’S ALL ABOUT THE COCOA:

GAGNOA, Ivory Coast (Reuters) – Three more tribesmen were killed in clashes at the weekend in a major cocoa-growing area of Ivory Coast, bringing the death toll in three days of violence to at least nine, a local official said on Monday.

Local Bete tribesmen have been in conflict with farm workers from outside the area and immigrants around cocoa plantations in the Gagnoa area since Thursday.

The clashes are part of a wider cycle of violence over plantations in the world’s top cocoa grower, where a civil war erupted last year and inflamed ethnic tensions.

The French certainly seem to be having a bad time of it in the Ivory Coast:

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) – French soldiers fired tear gas and blanks to expel a rock-throwing mob of government supporters Monday that attacked the main French military base in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital. . . .

On Sunday, Ivory Coast soldiers briefly seized control of state television headquarters, broadcasting demands that French and West African peacekeepers leave so armed forces can resume attacks on insurgents.

I wish for things to go well, not badly, in the Ivory Coast, which was quite a nice place by West African standards until recently.