Ivory Coast has successfully negotiated a day big on risk after its former president Laurent Gbagbo returned home, however, analysts have opined that the high emotions underscore the need for national healing.
Africa Today News, New York reports that thousands of supporters lined the streets of Abidjan on Thursday to celebrate the return of a man they revere as a hero, but who for others stirs memories of turmoil and bloodshed.
Although the turnout for Gbagbo’s long-awaited homecoming was smaller than some had predicted, but tensions were relatively high.
Police made massive use of tear gas to disperse crowds and, according to Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party, while also arresting several dozen of his followers.
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‘These regrettable incidents, to our knowledge, did not lead to loss of human life or even major property damage, but they should not obscure the truth,’ commentator Venance Konan wrote in the pro-government Fraternite Matin daily sighed by Africa Today News, New York.
‘We all want our new history to be written under the theme of complete and genuine reconciliation, of a sacred union in the face of the great perils that we are going to have to face, and which are called Islamic terrorism, deforestation, Sahelisation.’
Gbagbo, 76, was Ivory Coast’s president from 2000 until 2011 — a time of rebellion, division and repeatedly postponed elections.
He was arrested in April 2011 after a months-long conflict sparked by his refusal to concede electoral defeat at the hands of today’s president, Alassane Ouattara.
He was then hauled off to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity resulting from the war, which claimed some 3,000 lives.
After a lengthy trial, Gbagbo was acquitted in January 2019. The verdict was upheld on March 31, paving the way for his return.
Ouattara says he welcomes Gbagbo’s return, and has vowed to give him all the honours and rewards due to a former president.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK