CITY ON THE LAGOON

Commercial and administrative capital of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Abidjan is composed of ten communes, each with distinctive character, for example: financial and commercial, embassies and schools, markets, beer halls and nightlife, and so on. The city and country, rich in natural resources, were reasonably prosperous until recently. Beginning in 1999, coups, attempted countercoups, troop rebellions, and near civil war between the largely Muslim north and Christian south and west have overturned decades of stability.