It is a return which must symbolize “national reconciliation” in Côte d'Ivoire.
Former President Laurent Gbagbo is expected this Thursday in his country that he was forced to leave ten years ago.
His acquittal of crimes against humanity by international justice and the green light from his rival, President Alassane Ouattara, allow him to set foot on Ivorian soil again.
Laurent Gbagbo, 76, returns by a regular flight from Brussels where he has lived since his acquittal by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in January 2019, confirmed on appeal on March 31.
Landing is scheduled for 3:45 p.m. in Abidjan.
He will be welcomed at the presidential pavilion at the airport, made available to him by the Head of State as a sign of good will, by leaders of his party, the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI).
Several dozen notables should be present.
The expected crowd
After his arrival, the ex-president will travel to the Attoban district, where his former campaign headquarters for the 2010 presidential election is located, according to a statement from the FPI which invites "members of the party leadership" to go there to welcome him.
Between the airport and Attoban his procession will cross several neighborhoods where the crowd should be able to gather to cheer him.
The extent of the reception of the former president was at the heart of the recent negotiations between the government and the FPI: the first wishing that it would be without "triumphalism", the second that it be popular by allowing the most many of his supporters to be present in the streets of Abidjan.
The stake is the safety of Laurent Gbagbo himself but also to avoid any overflow and violence which the two camps do not want.
The 2010 crisis
Residents began to show their joy before his arrival. On the other hand, his opponents still believe that he threw his country into chaos by refusing his defeat to Alassane Ouattara in the 2010 presidential election. This refusal caused a serious post-electoral crisis, during which some 3,000 people were affected. been killed. Laurent Gbagbo, in power since 2000, was arrested in April 2011 in Abidjan and then transferred to the ICC in The Hague. His relatives assure that he returns without a spirit of revenge but also to work for the policy of "national reconciliation".
Laurent Gbagbo also remains under sentence in Côte d'Ivoire to twenty years in prison for the "robbery" of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) during the 2010-2011 crisis. .
By announcing in early April that he was free to return to Côte d'Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara did not mention this sentence but the government hinted that it would be lifted.
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