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Ivory Coast

OFFICIAL NAME: Republic of Côte d'Ivoire

DATE OF FORMATION: 1960

POPULATION: 16.9 million

DENSITY: 138 people per square mile

LANGUAGES: Akan, French, Kru, Voltaic

RELIGIONS: Muslim 38%, Traditional beliefs 25%, Roman Catholic 25%, Other 6%, Protestant 6%

ETHNIC MIX: Baoulé 23%, Other 19%, Bété 18%, Senufo 15%, Agni-Ashanti 14%, Mandinka 11%

GOVERNMENT: Multiparty elections

CURRENCY: CFA franc

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One of the larger countries on the shores of west Africa, Ivory Coast – officially Côte d'Ivoire – is the world's biggest cocoa producer. Its reputation as an island of stability in a continent of chaos was largely due to the pro-Western and long-term president Félix Houphouët-Boigny (1960–1993). This image was shattered in 1999 by a military coup which was in turn followed by a popular uprising in 2000 and outright civil conflict in 2002–2003.