Abidjan - Ivory Coast police fired teargas on Saturday to disperse about a thousand stone-throwing protesters outside a French military base in Abidjan, witnesses said.
The demonstrators, supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo, said they wanted about 4 000 French troops to leave the former colony, accusing them of siding with rebels who control the northern half of the world's biggest cocoa producer.
The French troops - known as the Unicorn Force - were deployed after a civil war blew up out of a failed coup against Gbagbo in September 2002.
The war was officially declared over last year, but the country remains split in two, with the French soldiers policing a ceasefire line which runs across the West African nation.
http://iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art_id=qw1086442020512B216&set_id=1
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