I've just looked it up, and apparently there were 20,000 Ivorians fighting in WW1 and 30,000 in WW2. They were mostly attached to Senegal regiments. (Both countries were French colonies) I visited a special military cemetery in Senegal once, where several hundred casualties were buried, and the local feeling was that no-one remembers these War Dead. I bought a few rather exotic flowers from a local market and laid them on the tiny Memorial there. It was completely deserted, and I felt very sad. Ghana and Nigeria too contributed many military fighters. Just wanted to mention them today, as W Africa is dear to my heart.
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