UN peacekeeper killed on Ivory Coast

A UN peacekeeper was killed in a knife attack in a northern Ivory Coast rebel stronghold today, UN officials said.

The attack on the Moroccan soldier came shortly after midnight in the city of Bouake. No further details were immediately available, a UN spokesman, Renald Boismoreau, said.

Some 10,000 French and UN peace troops are guarding front lines between northern-based rebel fighters and Ivory Coast loyalist forces in the south.

Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, fell into civil war after a failed September 2002 coup attempt.

Peace deals have largely calmed fighting but failed to reunite the one-time French colony.