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One of the larger countries on the shores of west Africa, Ivory Coast – officially Côte d'Ivoire – is the world's biggest cocoa producer. Its reputation as an island of stability in a continent of chaos was largely due to the pro-Western and long-term president Félix Houphouët-Boigny (1960–1993). This image was shattered in 1999 by a military coup which was in turn followed by a popular uprising in 2000 and outright civil conflict in 2002–2003.