In September 2002, the Ivory Coast endured a second army mutiny, this time by 750 Muslim soldiers who seized Bouaké, citing religious discrimination and grievances against the predominantly Christian government. The mutineers later took control of most of the northern administrative regions, carrying out a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing and plunging the country into civil war. For a number of years, troops dispatched by France, ECOWAS, and a United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (ONUCI) effort enforced a buffer zone between the south and the rebel-held north.