Cote d'Ivoire: Cocoa, U.N. Troops and a Tense Third Quarter

The U.N. Security Council has extended the deployment of 11,000 U.N. and French peacekeepers in Cote d'Ivoire for another six months. Overlapping the country's springtime cocoa harvest, the mandate effectively protects Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and keeps him from having to negotiate with northern rebels. With elections to be held by Oct. 31, the country's opposing northern and southern factions will use the intervening time — and revenues from cocoa sales — to rearm themselves. This will make the third quarter in Cote d'Ivoire a tense time.