Leading cocoa exporters in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan remained closed early on Tuesday as many workers stayed at home to see whether an apparent lull after three days of rioting would hold. "It's calm...People are starting to go out a bit to see if they can get to work but for the moment there's nobody here," said a security guard at one top cocoa exporter in Abidjan.
"Normally work starts here at 0730 (GMT) but there's no one here because of the situation," a guard at the offices of another exporter in the commercial capital of the world's top cocoa grower said.
London cocoa futures ended at a three-month contract high on Monday as the violence in Ivory Coast, source of 45 percent of the world's cocoa, fuelled fears of supply disruption.
Mob violence erupted in Abidjan on Saturday, targeting foreigners, after France destroyed most of Ivory Coast's small air force in retaliation for the killing of nine French peacekeepers in bombing raid on a rebel town.
French helicopters clattered overhead and troops fired shots into the air on Monday to disperse thousands of supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo who feared Paris was about to topple their leader. The crowds later dispersed.
Three shipments of coffee and cocoa were also blocked at the south-western port of San Pedro on Monday as workers stayed away and gangs of club-wielding militants loyal to Gbagbo roamed the streets, a port official in the city said.
The situation in the rebel-held north was calm but tense, with United Nations peacekeepers for the most part preventing the Ivorian army crossing a cease-fire line that splits the country, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said late on Monday.
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