Ivory Coast Essay

Submitted By Jayson-Zernitsky
Words: 685
Pages: 3

Jayson Zernitsky
The Ivory Coast, otherwise known as Cote d'Ivoire, is located around the West coast of
Africa. It is surrounded by countries of Mali, Liberia, Guinea, and Ghana. The official language of the Ivory Coast is French. Other than French, citizens of the Ivory coast speak languages from the
Niger–Congo
family, such as Sénoufo, Guéré, Bété, Dioula, Abé, Mahou, Wobé.
Ivory
Coast’s government is classified as being a 'presidential democratic republic In the Ivory Coast, religion is divided into ways: Christianity (10%), Islam (30%), and traditional African beliefs beliefs (60%). Ivory Coast is a former colony of France. The country became independent of
France in 1960. Though they are no longer controlled by France, they keep friendly connections with them due to influence of their former President Houphouët­Boigny.
Ivory Coast was originally founded in 1300 by Mandinka people, a West African origin ethnic group. In 1637, the first French missionaries arrived in region from Europe. In 1893,
France created the colony of Ivory Coast. Yamoussoukro has been the official capital of the
Ivory Coast since 1983. Ivory Coast has a democratic party, in which the president of the country is elected for a five year term. Their president can be reappointed numerous times after serving their five year term. Every president appoints a Prime Minister and a Council of Ministers. The current president of Ivory Coast is Alassane Ouattara, and the current prime minister is
Guillaume Soro.
Their currency of Ivory Coast is the West African CFA franc. Present day has an unstable economy present day, due to its little economic growth and high unemployment. Most of the country is poor, with nearly fifty percent being below the poverty line today. By the 1980s,
Ivory Coast became the leading producer of cocoa worldwide. The government instability began in year of 2002 when the first civil war broke out between geographically divided political supporters. The civil war of 2002 has put the country far into debt, which cannot be still repaid even in present day. A second civil war broke out in 2010, which is still clearly seen in the country today. The dispute over the Ouattara­Gbagbo election spurred this war.The violence is so severe that millions of people have fled the country's former capital, of Abidjan. This caused the recent official capital switch to Yamoussoukro.
The population of the Ivory Coast is approximately 20.3 million people. There are more than 60 ethnic groups, the main ethnic groups being the Baoulé in the center of Ivory Coast, the
Agri in the east, the Senufo in the north, the Bété in the center­west and the Dan­Yacouba in the west. One of