The former Cote d’Ivoire President who became the first former African head of state to appear in the dock at the International Criminal Court in the Hague has escaped more hazardous situations than Indiana Jones.

One of these is that international tribunal sentencing him in 2015 to 20 years imprisonment for crimes against humanity.

It acquitted him in January last year and set him free provided he did not return to Cote d’Ivoire.

The court found that there was not enough evidence that he had ordered the heinous crimes that occurred during the civil war that followed his refusal to accept defeat by Alassane Ouattara in the 2010 presidential election.

The prosecution is appealing this decision which was not well received by the Ivorean authorities and the families and friends of the 3000 people who died in that five-month of conflict that ended with Gbagbo’s arrest by Ouattara’s forces backed by the French soldiers.

Gbagbo went to Belgium which agreed to grant him asylum.

In May the ICC  declared he was no longer restricted to living there.

Determined to contest the election scheduled for October 31 Gbagbo applied for a diplomatic passport to which he is entitled as a former head of state.

Having had no response from the foreign ministry in Yamoussoukro Gbagbo has made applied for an ordinary Ivorean passport at the embassy in Brussels

This week his drastically split Ivorean Popular Front (FPI) named Pascal Affi N’Guessan as its presidential candidate.

He’ll in all likelihood  be opposing Ouatarra following the death last month of Amadou Gon Coulibaly the chosen candidate of the ruling Houphouëists For Democracy and Peace (RHDP).

Ouattara has yet to confirm that he will be going back on his undertaking to step down.

Gbagbo’s supporters are at pains to dismiss N’Guessan as the favourite of the renovators wing of the FPI

They insist that the Gbagbo Or Nothing faction of the party remains alive and well and that they are foursquare behind him seeking a third mandate.

So much depends now on whether the Ivorian authorities allow Gbagbo to come home and contest the election.

The post Will Ivorean authorities allow Laurent Gbagbo to come home and contest the presidential election appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Soro and his legal team boycotted the trial, which lasted only a few hours, saying it was a ploy to keep him out of the election scheduled for October.

Guillaume Soro was the rebel leader who backed President Allasane Ouatarra in Cote’Ivoire’s second civil war a decade ago following Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to accept defeat in the Presidential election.

He was made Prime Minister before falling out Ouatarra, who stands down in October after serving two terms.

Soro is accused of buying a house with government money.

His property in Abidjan has been confiscated and he has been stripped of civic rights for five years.

The post Ivorean presidential candidate Guillaume Soro fined $7 million appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

In its annual economic outlook the African Development Bank predicts a GDP growth of 4% in Africa this year.

Briefing the media in Abidjan, the African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina says the signing of an African Free Trade Area agreement last year will create the largest free trade area in the world.

It will provide an unprecedented framework for the continent with the capacity to increase trade across across Africa by 100 percent.

The bank is investing a billion dollars  to support trade in Africa.

Adesina says GDP grew 4,1% across Africa in 2018 and is predicted to grow by the same figure in 2020.

The post African Development Bank predicts a very promising future indeed for the continent appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Gbagbo has had to agree to limit his movement and to being surveillance in Belgium.

The first former head of state to appear in the dock at the International Criminal Court, Laurent Gbagbo was acquitted last month on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The charges relate to the civil war that ensued in the Ivory Coast following Gbagbo’s refusal to accept defeat in a 2010 election.

The international tribunal continues to hold him pending the appeal on his acquittal.

Belgium’s agreed that he can stay there, with strict limitations on his movements,  because his second wife lives in Brussels.

The post Belgium agrees to host Laurent Gbagbo while he awaits legal process appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The authorities say the parliamentarian’s social media post caused violent riots.

Former Sport Minister Alain Lobognan tweeted that prosecutors were about to arrest a fellow MP.

The authorities insist this was never the case and that the MP’s fake new had led violent protests.

Lobognan has gone on hunger strike since receiving the jail sentence. 

He claims he’s the target of a politically-motivated attack.

Lobognan is close to Parliamentary Speaker Guillaume Soro who’s a former rebel leader and prime minister.

Soro’s fallen out with President Alassane Ouattara whom he plans to oppose in elections scheduled for next year.

The post Ivorean MP jailed for disseminating fake news has gone on hunger strike appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

This paves the way for the early release of the man who’s been awaiting trial in the Hague for seven years.

The ICC judges say the prosecution case against former Ivorean President Laurent Gbagbo is exceptionally weak.

It relates to his refusal to accept defeat in 2010 elections.

In the ensuing civil war, more than 3 000 people died and half a million were replaced.

The ICC found earlier this week that the prosecution could not adequately link Gbagbo to the deaths and acquitted him on war crimes charges.

They judges said today they has assurances from Gbagbo that he would return if the prosecution appeal against the acquittal is successful.

The post ICC judges reject prosecution request to keep acquitted Ivorean former President Laurent Gbagbo in jail appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Military sources and residents says they’ve seized control of the country’s second-largest city Bouaké.

Heavy gunfire was heard from early Friday in Bouaké – a city of around a half million inhabitants in the centre of the country.

Sporadic shooting continued into the late morning.

Military sources said demobilised soldiers – mainly former rebels from the decade-long conflict – broke into police stations across the city, looting weapons before taking up positions at entry points into the city.

A France 24 reporter says there’s sort of a standstill reportedly … between soldiers who have been demilitarised from the previous civil war that ended in 2011.

It appears they are demanding pay that they say they are owed.

The post Mutinying soldiers seize Cote d’Ivoire’s second city appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Hardline opposition boycotted the election in the

country seeking to move on from bloody era sparked by his opponents after his 2010 victory.

President Alassane Ouattara won a total of 2,118,229 votes, or more than 83% of ballots cast. yhe president of the Independent Electoral Commission, Youssouf Bakayoko says the  turnout was  54.63%.

Yamoussoukro, the administrative capital.

Sunday’s vote was judged to be peaceful and transparent by observers – a positive sign for investors who have flooded into the world’s top cocoa grower, drawn by growth of around 9% over the past three years.

The post President Alassane Ouatarra wins a second term in Cote d’Ivoire appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

She’s been found guilty in Abidjan of undermining state security in the aftermath of 2010 elections when her husband refused to acknowledge defeat.

Former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo is in The Hague awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court.

The ICC wanted to put his wife Simone in the there dock too, but Ivorean authorities refused – preferring to try her themselves.

More than 3 000 people died in the violence that followed President Alassane Ouattara’s victory.

Simone who’d been dubbed the Iron Lady is found guilty of disturbing public order and organising armed gangs.

Her sentence is twice as long as prosecutors asked for.

Her lawyer says they’ll appeal.

The post Ivorean Iron Lady jailed appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Accused of links with terrorism, 510 of them have been de-registered.

Their bank accounts have been frozen and the work permits of their foreign employees revoked.

The Nairobi government’s at its wit’s end fighting Al Shabab’s increased involvement in Kenya.

In the past month it’s killed 64 singling out non Muslims before shooting them.

The government’s involved in a heated debate over a controversial new security bill aimed at fighting militants.

Its critics are accusing it of using the threat posed by Al-Shabab to curb democratic freedoms

Officials say the organisations have been de-registered because of their failure to submit financial records.

15 are accused of direct links with terrorist organisations.

.

The post NGOs fall prey to Kenyan security crackdown appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.