Cote d'Ivoire: Farmers return to land in west after deadly clashes
DAKAR: Some 70 long-displaced farmers returned this week to a cocoa plantation in western Côte d'Ivoire, despite deadly clashes triggered when armed youths tried to block their return.
UN and local officials say the clashes - in the sub-prefecture of Zeaglo, some 450km northwest of the commercial capital Abidjan - underscore the importance of reconciliation efforts in the volatile west, a zone long wracked by land disputes and hit by some of the worst violence during the country's six-year conflict.