Thousands of militant pro-government youths marched peacefully in the west of Ivory Coast on Saturday to protest against the presence French troops keeping the peace in the world's top cocoa grower. Chanting and waving banners, protesters dressed in the national colours of white, green and orange marched through Duekoue and Guiglo, two towns at the heart of the cocoa-growing west, but fears of violence proved unfounded. West Africa's former economic powerhouse has been divided in two since a civil war erupted out of a failed coup in September 2002. There are 4,000 French and 6,240 U.N. troops policing a buffer zone which splits the former French colony. While French soldiers fought off repeated rebel attacks on towns such as Duekoue, pro-government supporters accuse them of favouring the dissidents and want them to leave when their mandate comes up for renewal at the start of April.
