Politics

Ivory Coast President Ouattara pardons predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo, in bid to boost social cohesion

Published

2 years ago

August 7, 2022

Ivory Coast President, Alassane Ouattara, has granted state pardon to his predecessor and eternal rival, Laurent Gbagbo, in what he believes would boost “social cohesion.”

Ouattara who made the announcement in a nationwide address on television on Saturday, said the pardon was also part of a reconciliation drive ahead of elections in 2025 and in celebrating the country’s independence day on Sunday.

“In the interests of strengthening social cohesion, I have signed a decree granting a presidential pardon,” the President said in the speech.

He added that he has also asked the country’s Central Bank to unfreeze Gbagbo’s bank accounts and ensure his lifetime annuity is paid.

Ouattara’s peace gesture came after a meeting last month between him, Gbagbo, who was president from 2000 to 2011, and former President, Henri Konan Bedie, who was the country’s leader from 1993 until his removal in a 1999 coup.

Ouattara described that meeting as a “fraternal meeting” in which the three men “discussed, in a friendly atmosphere, matters of national interest and the ways and means of consolidating peace in our country.”

Gbagbo and Bedie were also invited to attend independence day celebrations at Yamoussoukro, the country’s political capital.

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

21 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.