After crisis, Ivory Coast still edgy

For the first 35 years after independence, the Ivory Coast, one of the continent's most cosmopolitan and pro-European countries, was ruled by a benevolent dictator, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who had close ties to France. He died in 1990.

During the reign of Mr. Houphouët-Boigny, ethnic rivalries were repressed. He was a Christian, but from the northern town of Yamoussoukro, then little more than one of many tiny villages cut into Ivory Coast's semitropical forest. Yamoussoukro is dominated by a gigantic white basilica, one of the world's largest. It dwarfs a small mosque nearby – a visual symbol of the country's power structure.

On Christmas Eve 1999, a military coup toppled the 39-year rule of Houphouët-Boigny's party and put military leader Robert Guei in power. Abidjan still bears the scars of that uprising.

Within a year, however, elections changed the balance of power again. Guei – who was killed execution-style by paramilitaries with his family last week – claimed victory. But a popular uprising forced him to hand power to Mr. Gbagbo, a member of Houphouët-Boigny's party.

Discontent from that period still lingers between government supporters – Christians from the south – and supporters of the main opposition leader, Alassane Outtara, a northern Muslim, who was excluded from the election.

The specific cause of the violence over the past week is disputed. The government says that it was begun by 700 disgruntled troops angry at their coming demobilization. They are said to have been dismissed because they were still loyal to Guei.

Mr. Outtara, who has taken refuge in the French embassy, claims the coup was sparked by the government as an excuse to crack down supporters of his party. He says there were attempts on his life by the government and that Guei's death was a government-led assassination.

Rebel troops were driven from Abidjan within 12 hours of the start of the fighting. They fled to Bouaké and Korhogo – two primarily Muslim cities in the North – which are still seeing sporadic violence.

Students and faculty at the International Missionary School were trapped when the fighting began.

"We were hunkered down for seven days, fuel and water running low," says Michel Cousineau, business manager and security chief at the school. "So when the French arrived, we were delighted to see them."

Students have been kept from speaking to the press, and immediate plans for the school are unclear.

Immigrants and foreign powers, particularly Muslim neighbor Burkino Faso, as well as Mali and Liberia, are blamed for the violence.

"The rebels are not popular," says Didier Kouadeo as he cuts the grass outside the Yamoussoukro airport. "People think that a lot of them are foreigners who've come here for jobs."

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