The nitty-gritty is being worked out, but it looks like Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo is set to stand down in favor of his internationally recognized competitor, Alesane Ouattara who won a disputed run-off election earlier this year. The battle for Abijan between the supporters of the two Presidents had been raging for a couple of days now- and it looks like a combination of UN and French military intervention seems to have finally persuaded him to step down.
While the eyes of the international community seem to have been more fixed on events in the Middle East, the violence in the Ivory Coast has been extreme as forces loyal to Ouattara advanced southwards towards the capital of Abijan. While I've got to applaud the newly muscular French foreign policy (nothing like bombing some people to help your election chances, eh Sarkozy?) that's emerging for getting rid of this guy, again, this would have been a lot more helpful had it come sooner- though to the credit of France and many other countries, there had been widespread international pressure building on Gbagbo for some months now- not that the American media was going to report it or anything.
Bonus for all you readers wondering why the hell you should care: gas prices we notice more, but have you noticed the price of candy? It's gone up- and I'm not an economist, but when the world's leading supplier of cocoa drops into what amounts to a Civil War, it probably drives prices up. Now that Gbagbo's apparently on his way out, hopefully those of you craving your chocolate fix will be able to get it without hurting your wallets quite so much.
UPDATED: Yeah, not so much apparently...
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