The former first lady of Côte d’Ivoire Simone Gbagbo asked “forgiveness” to the victims of several violent political crises during a meeting in Bouaké (center), Sunday April 30, a few months before regional and local elections and two years from the presidential election.
“I once again want to ask for forgiveness from the whole nation and all those who suffered terrible suffering, who lost relatives, jobs and were forced into exile,” she said in Bouaké, stronghold of the armed rebellion that attempted in 2002 to overthrow the regime of former President Laurent Gbagbo, her ex-husband. The rebellion, made up of militias, had taken control of the northern half of the country for several years.
“I grant my forgiveness to all those who have caused harm to the Ivorian nation and to my person”, “to my relatives” and to “my political family”, she added. “I urge all politicians in Côte d’Ivoire to follow me in this exercise,” she continued to thousands of activists and supporters of her party, the Movement of Capable Generations (MGC). Representatives of the Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP, in power) and the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire-African Democratic Rally (PDCI-RDA) also attended the speech.
National reconciliation
Simone Gbagbo also asked for the return of the leader of the 2002 rebellion, Guillaume Soro, now in exile and sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2021 in connection with an attempted insurrection in 2019. According to her, this is , in the “interest” of Côte d’Ivoire “that he return to the country and have the opportunity to participate in the national reconciliation process” initiated by the current Head of State, Alassane Ouattara, specifying that she did not “approve” Mr. Soro’s “role” during the 2002 crisis, but “forgave” him.
Sentenced in 2015 to twenty years in prison for acts related to the post-electoral crisis of 2010-2011, Simone Gbagbo had benefited from the national reconciliation process through an amnesty law in 2018. Alassane Ouattara’s victory in the presidential of 2010, contested by the outgoing Laurent Gbagbo, had led to five months of crisis and left 3,000 dead.
Deploring a lack of “transparency” and “equity”, Ms. Gbagbo also called for a postponement of the regional and municipal elections scheduled for September 2023, the first in which her party, created in 2022, will take part.
