ABIDJAN, June 8 (Reuters) - Police in Ivory Coast used tear gas to disperse dozens of striking dockers who have slowed the flow of containers through the top cocoa grower's main port of Abidjan, witnesses said on Monday.
The police intervened after the workers tried to prevent new recruits, brought in to fill the gap left by dockers striking over a simmering pay dispute, from starting their work.
"Early this morning, the dockers positioned themselves in front of the port to continue the strike and block the new recruits. The policemen dispersed them with tear gas," Landry Jean Ayekoue Atse, head of a dockers' union, told Reuters.
It was not immediately clear whether cocoa exports had been affected by the protest. (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Writing by David Lewis, editing by Anthony Barker)