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Article: Ivory Coast's war-divided people unite, for now, behind national soccer team
- Article from:
- AP Worldstream
- Article date:
- February 2, 2006
- Author:
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PARFAIT KOUASSI, Associated Press Writer
AP Worldstream
02-02-2006
Dateline: ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast
An African proverb holds that "when the elephants fight, the grass suffers" _ meaning that leaders' warmaking only ends up injuring their people.
But these days, plodding pachyderms symbolize hope for peace in Ivory Coast, divided by war into northern rebel and southern loyalist enclaves. Northerners and southerners play together on the country's national soccer team, nicknamed the Elephants, and are winning on the grassy fields of the continent's premier soccer tournament.
Ivorians have come together to celebrate as the Elephants vie in Egypt for the Africa Cup of Nations trophy. Ivory Coast ...