ABIDJAN, July 29 (Reuters) - Students ran amok in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan on Tuesday, robbing passers-by and smashing car windows during a protest to demand compensation for the year of school they lost because of civil war. The war was officially declared over on July 4 and rebels have joined a power-sharing government, but tensions remain high and the world's largest cocoa grower is still divided between the rebel-held north and west and the government-held south. The students, many of whom were from the rebel-held central town of Bouake, said they had been promised 300,000 CFA francs ($526) as compensation for missing a year of school because of the war, which started with a failed coup last September. "It's not right that rebels should live in luxury while we are just asking for the minimum that was promised to us," said Parfait Bile, a second-year law student. About 2,000 students marched through the Plateau business district and gathered near the presidency, where small groups peeled off and ran through the narrow streets, grabbing mobile phones from passers-by and spreading panic in the built-up area of banks, international organisations and shops. Some students brandished knives. Riot police fired teargas and made a number of arrests. "They caught me from behind. I tried to hold onto my phone but they set upon me and hit me in the mouth," said one Abidjan resident, showing his ripped shirt after being jumped. Thousands of people were killed and nearly one million people were displaced at the height of the civil war. France still has some 4,000 troops in its former colony to guarantee a peace deal agreed in January.
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