past work: ivory coast post election crisis: post election crisis

After close to a decade of conflict between the north and the south, stoked by xenophobic fears, presidential elections were finally held in October 2010. Both Alassane Ouattara, a northerner, and incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo, a southerner, claimed victory, spiraling the country into a deadly civil war, claiming the lives of over 3000 people.  

Security forces and Jeune Patriots loyal to Laurent Gbagbo routinely targeted opposition neighborhoods in Abidjan with deadly force while rebels to the north targeted southern loyalists as they fought their way toward the captial.  

In April 2011, as rebels from the north fighting against Gbagbo's rule moved south toward the captial, French forces and UN Peacekeepers removed Gbago and his wife from power allowing Alassane Ouattara to take the presidential seat.  

(New York Times, Associated Press)