Laurent Gbagbo

The main opposition Front populaire ivoirien appears unable to accept that it must replace its leader ex-President Laurent Gbagbo to contest the elections in October...

South-west Côte d'Ivoire which borders Liberia's volatile Grand Gedeh County is still a stronghold of support for ex-President Laurent Gbagbo's Front populaire ivoirien (AC Vol 55 No 4 The price of peace)...

On 11 December the International Criminal Court confirmed charges of murder rape and other inhumane acts against Charles Blé Goudé 42 a former Ivorian militia leader and Youth Minister under the then President Laurent Gbagbo...

Laurent Gbagbo's trial begins in the Hague on 7 July next year on similar charges to those against Blé Goudé...

Already Ivorian opposition politicians especially ex-President Laurent Gbagbo's Front populaire ivoirien are up in arms...

Nigeria resented South Africa's presence in what it considers its back yard when Pretoria sent troops to Central African Republic and a warship to Côte d'Ivoire during the Laurent Gbagbo crisis...

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves le Drian and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius were also prominent in the delegation and Hollande also used the occasion to announce the end of the Licorne force deployed in Côte d'Ivoire since September 2002 and which played a key role in overthrowing President Laurent Gbagbo (AC Vol 52 No 18 Gbagbo: France's part in his downfall)...

Similar effort has been put into cultivating Nigeria where opinions about France had long been influenced by its support for Biafra's separatists in the 1960s and South Africa whose position supporting ex-President Laurent Gbagbo in the Ivorian crisis of 2010-11 was radically different from that of Paris...

The two countries differed over France's role in the ousting of Côte d'Ivoire's President Laurent Gbagbo in 2011 but have been working more closely on the crisis in Central African Republic...

He had fled to Ghana after the fall of president Laurent Gbagbo in April 2011 but was arrested there and sent to Côte d'Ivoire in January 2013 (AC Vol 55 No 4 The price of peace & Vol 54 No 2 Blé Goudé arrested)...

Côte d'Ivoire's Great West region has been the site of deadly violence since civil conflict followed President Alassane Dramane Ouattara's election victory over Laurent Gbagbo in November 2010...