Fighting has broken out between local farmers and foreigners in one of the Ivory Coast's central cocoa-growing areas, forcing several hundred to flee their homes. The Gagnoa cocoa-growing region (300 kilometers west of the economic capital) produces about one quarter of the cocoa grown in the Ivory Coast. The dispute was apparently sparked by foreign farmers refusing to sell their beans to newly created local village cooperatives, which were offering a rather low price. The army sent a unit to the area to restore order, after fighting broke out there on the 6th. - Adam Geibel