Africa
Ivory Coast’s ex-President Gbagbo returns home after ICC acquittal
Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has returned home, 10 years after he was taken to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity.
Mr Gbagbo has been living in the Belgian capital Brussels since his release from detention three years ago.
His successor and rival President Alassane Ouattara invited him back.
He was the first former head of state to go on trial at the ICC but was acquitted of all charges.
The 76-year-old was charged after his refusal to accept defeat in a 2010 election triggered a civil war that left 3,000 people dead. He always denied all the allegations.
In March, the ICC appeals court upheld a 2019 acquittal, saying the prosecution had failed to prove its case against Mr Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé, an ally and former youth leader who was accused of leading a militia backing him.
Who is Gbagbo?
Born in the south-central region of Gagnoa in 1945 to a Catholic family, Mr Gbagbo was educated in a Christian seminary and later became a history professor.
He cut his political teeth in the trade union movement where he became a vocal opponent of Ivory Coast’s then one-party state. He started out on the political left, but in the 1980s took a strong nationalist, stance, which critics say bordered on xenophobia.
After 20 years in opposition, he was finally elected president in 2000, but civil war broke out just two years later. Mr Gbagbo’s supporters were accused of carrying out xenophobic attacks in areas they controlled – against those from the mainly Muslim north, immigrants from neighbouring African countries, and Westerners.
They accused former colonial power France and the UN of not doing enough to put down a rebellion which had split Ivory Coast in two, with rebels allied with Mr Ouattara seizing the north.
The crisis led to the postponement of the 2005 presidential elections six times before they were finally held in 2010 but Mr Gbagbo refused to concede defeat to Mr Ouattara after a runoff.
The five months of violence that followed were described as some of the most brutal violence the country had ever seen.
Mr Gbagbo said the dispute over Ivory Coast’s presidency was a fight for Ivorian – and indeed African – sovereignty and he accused the French and Americans of siding against him.
However, this argument did not prevail and the African Union backed the UN’s finding that Mr Gbagbo lost the election and should stand down.
He was finally captured in April 2011 in a presidential palace bunker by UN and French-backed forces supporting Mr Ouattara.
What Mr Gbagbo’s return means and its impact is uncertain, but for some Ivorians the hope is that it will help reconcile the country and shift the government’s attention to economic reforms and to dealing with the spillover of the Islamist insurgency from neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali.
However, for many victims of Mr Gbagbo’s rule, time has not healed their physical and emotional wounds. His return is a reminder of the violence they suffered and the injustice they still endure.
This West African nation wants peace in its borders to be achieved through reconciling its people – whether it can achieve this without justice for victims of its civil wars, only time will tell.
Why was Gbagbo cleared by the ICC?
In 2019, the judges ruled that prosecutors had failed to demonstrate “the existence of a ‘common plan’ to keep Mr Gbagbo in power” which included crimes against civilians, or a “policy to attack a civilian population”.
Presiding Judge Cuno Tarfusser said the prosecution had also “failed to demonstrate that public speeches by Gbagbo constituted ordering or inducing the alleged crimes”.
In March, an ICC appeals court upheld the acquittal, dismissing the prosecution’s argument that there had been procedural errors in how the original verdict was delivered and that thousands of documents and 96 witnesses presented during the trial had proved the guilt of Mr Gbagbo beyond reasonable doubt.
Despite his acquittal at the ICC, he could still serve time in prison after Ivorian authorities sentenced him in absentia in November 2019 for “looting” the Central Bank of West African States (Bceao) in the aftermath of the 2010 disputed poll.
The 20-year sentence had ruled him out of taking part in last year’s election.
Why did Gbagbo go back?
After his acquittal President Ouattara invited him to return to Ivory Coast, which is still striving for political stability. Mr Gbagbo responded, by saying he wanted to promote peace in his country.
Although bitterness and division remain a decade after the election, and civil war, observers say Mr Ouattara feels politically secure after winning a controversial third term last year and is therefore willing to reconcile with his political nemesis.
Some of Mr Gbagbo’s allies were welcomed home two months ago after years in exile
But others point to the 2018 amnesty given to Mr Gbagbo’s wife, Simone, and several others jailed for crimes committed during the 2010-11 crisis, saying the reconciliation effort started a while ago.
Six other former allies of Mr Gbagbo returned two months ago after years in exile.
Amid the attention given to Mr Gbagbo, many victims of his rule are resentful and feel forgotten because few people have been convicted for their crimes.
“This creates impunity and paves the way for other crimes,” Issiaka Diaby of the Collective of Victims in Ivory Coast told news agency AFP.
Immediately after getting drafted, Maluach was asked: “So many people, when they think about Africa, think about strife, think about war, think about not so great things about the continent, let alone South Sudan. How much of a responsibility do you think you have in changing perceptions of what people think Africa is in terms of thinking more about the resources, thinking about the people of Africa and South Sudan, specifically?”
Maluach’s native country, South Sudan, is undergoing a humanitarian crisis. His family fled the country to a suburb of Kampala, Uganda, in search of safety and opportunity during the South Sudan crisis. He now hopes to change the narrative about the region by highlighting its good parts on the world stage.
“I think about showing them the good parts of Africa,” Maluach said at the press conference after he was drafted. “I’m thinking about showing them the great places in Africa, like Kigali, whether it’s Senegal, whether it’s the safaris in Africa, and showing them the cultures we have and the people we have, which is different from the stuff they see on TV. I just want to change the narrative, the narrative of our people and how they see my continent.”
Maluach was born in Rumbek, once an important city in South Sudan that was ravaged by the country’s civil war. The 7’2″ center’s road to success was far from easy. The nearest basketball court to his house was nearly an hour’s walk away and usually packed. Moreover, he played his first game in Crocs, not basketball shoes. But his dedication was enough to catch the eye of local coaches Wal Deng and Aketch Garang.
Through the effort that he put in, Maluach made it to the NBA Academy Africa in Saly, Senegal, then to the Duke Blue Devils, and now the Suns. He hopes the moment inspires kids on the continent.
“Living in Africa, I had the whole continent on my back. Giving hope to young kids,” he said after the Suns selected him No. 10 overall.
Maluach considers basketball a gift God gave him, and hopes to finish off his NBA career as a Hall of Famer.
After making history as Nigeria’s first female fighter pilot, Flt. Lt. Kafayat Sanni has emerged as the Best Allied Student and won the Best Assistant Commandant Paper award at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Accra, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
In a statement released on Saturday and cited by NAN, the Director of Public Relations and Information of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, said the awards were presented on Friday during the College graduation ceremony which had in attendance top military personnel and dignitaries from across Africa.
Ejodame recalled how Sanni first made the news in 2019 after being decorated as the Nigerian Air Force’s first female fighter pilot following her pilot training in the U.S.
“Since then, she has flown the Alpha Jet as well as undertaken training sorties on the Super Mushshak as a prolific instructor pilot, producing and mentoring younger pilots for the NAF,” Ejodame said.
“Her outstanding performance at GAFCSC not only symbolises personal excellence and resilience but also underscores Nigeria’s growing leadership in regional defence and commitment to gender inclusion in the armed forces.
“This remarkable achievement further reflects the Nigerian Air Force’s strategic investment in human capital development under the visionary leadership of the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar,” he said.
In 2017, Sanni emerged as the overall best pilot at the Nigerian Air Force’s 401 training school before she moved to the United States to train at the U.S. Aviation Leadership program.
Upon completion, Sanni returned to Nigeria, where she, alongside 12 new fighter pilots, was decorated.
As Sanni became the first female fighter pilot in the 55-year history of the Nigerian Air Force, her colleague, Tolulope Arotile, also became the Force’s first female combat helicopter pilot.
“It is a privilege for me to be winged as the first female fighter pilot in the Nigerian Air Force,” Sanni said after being decorated.
Sanni said at the time she had always wanted to be a fighter pilot, and “I was just lucky to be chosen.”
“It was also my choice. It was what I wanted to do. And I felt that everyone is not supposed to fold their arms and watch what is happening in our country.
“Everyone could always play their part. So, I did not think there was any reason for me to think that it is not possible for me to actually fly the jet because there was no female that ever flew the jet. I believe I could achieve it and I did,” she said.
She then went on to advise younger girls to “never say no to opportunities.”
“They should always strive to be the best and put in their efforts. They should never look at anything that seems to want to overpower or overshadow them. For me, you can always attempt things and if they do not work out well; fine. But at every point in time, you just need to put in your best.”
U.S. hotel chains Hilton and Marriott have announced African expansion drives to tap into the continent’s rapid tourism growth.
Rising business and leisure travel on the continent has made it increasingly attractive for multinational companies and Hilton said on Wednesday that it plans to more than triple its African portfolio to more than 160 hotels.
The company plans to enter Angola, Ghana and Benin for the first time while returning to Madagascar and Tanzania, its statement said without providing a specific time horizon for the expansion plans.
Marriott expects to add 50 properties by 2027, it said on Wednesday. Those will include entry into five new countries: Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and Mauritania.
The group’s existing African portfolio encompasses nearly 150 properties and 26,000 rooms across 20 countries and 22 brands.
Airlines have also increased their African capacity.
Emirates now offers 161 weekly flights across Africa, recently adding daily services to Entebbe and Addis Ababa. United Airlines launched a direct Washington-Dakar route in May and Delta will begin a seasonal daily flight to Accra in December.
International arrivals to the continent rose 9% year on year in the first quarter of 2025, the United Nations World Tourism Organization says, 16% above the same period of pre-pandemic 2019.
That momentum is translating into economic impact. Tourism accounts for between 3% and 7% of gross domestic product in countries such as Kenya, Morocco and South Africa, and up to 15% in tourism-heavy economies such as Namibia, World Bank and national statistics show.
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