Former Ivorian President Gbagbo treats residents of his stay abroad

Former President of Côte d’Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo visited his home village, Mama, this week, just days after returning to the country after a 10-year absence. After being acquitted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, he hinted at a return to politics.

Gbagbo met on Tuesday more than 200 traditional leaders and local officials of his Ivorian Popular Front party in his private residence. Some 400 people entered its 17-hectare wooded park, protected by a pink surrounding wall, according to RFI special envoy François Hume-Ferkatadji.

Among the guests were more than 160 chefs from the department of Gagnoa and 46 from the department of Oumé. As is tradition in such circumstances, they came to “hear the news” from their local boy, the former president.

He sat facing the audience on stage, saying a few words in the local language before recounting his eight years in pre-trial detention in the Netherlands.

“I made new friends,” he said, “I didn’t see the time go by.”

He recounted anecdotes, such as the time he and his fellow inmates – Charles Taylor from Liberia and Jean-Pierre Bemba from the DRC – paid for better meals than the price of prison.

The money came from his current mate, Nady Bamba, he said.

“She fed me. She was the one who gave me money every month, because the food we were served in prison was not good, “he added.

Gbagbo had announced that he would divorce his wife Simone Gbagbo when he returned to Côte d’Ivoire less than two weeks ago.

Rejection of the ICC process

Speaking about the ICC, he said the court proceedings were “not serious”.

“I was troublesome, an unwanted rival, so they put me there,” he told his supporters when explaining his stay in The Hague. “I am not a criminal.”

The prosecution, he said, failed to get all the witnesses it had promised to testify against him.

“In November 2018, we were promised 135 witnesses on the side of the prosecution. 82 died. The judge asked the prosecutor: “Do you still have witnesses? and he said ‘No, it’s over’. The others didn’t want to come, “he added.

Most of the judges who acquitted him were white, he said.

“Even white people who don’t know us, who don’t know our little quarrels, know that I’m not a criminal,” he said.

Back to politics?

Laurent Gbagbo hinted that he would return to politics.

He also explained how, after meeting Henri Konan Bédié – president of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) – in Brussels, a man from a Belgian ministry asked him not to return to politics since it was the one of the conditions of his release. .

“You brought me here because of politics and you don’t want me to do politics? What brought me here will get me out of here,” he told the unnamed diplomat.

“Don’t think that I am not going to be in politics, I am still in politics,” he added.

Gbagbo, now 76, was arrested in 2011 following post-election violence that left 1,500 dead.