Koudou Laurent Gbagbo (born 31 May 1945) is an Ivorian politician who served as the president of Côte d'Ivoire from 2000 until his arrest in April 2011. He was the first president in the history of the country that was a centre-left politician. A historian, Gbagbo was imprisoned in the early 1970s and again in the early 1990s, and he lived in exile in France during much of the 1980s as a result of his union activism. Gbagbo founded the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) in 1982 and ran unsuccessfully for president against Félix Houphouët-Boigny at the start of multi-party politics in 1990. He won a seat in the National Assembly of Côte d'Ivoire in 1990."Qui est Laurent Gbagbo ?" , FPI website .
Gbagbo claimed victory after Robert Guéï, head of a military junta, barred other leading politicians from running in the October 2000 presidential election. The Ivorian people took to the streets, toppling Guéï. Gbagbo was then installed as president.
In the 2010 presidential election, Alassane Ouattara defeated Gbagbo, and was recognized as the winner by election observers, the international community, the African Union (AU), and the Economic Community of West African States. However, Gbagbo refused to step down, despite mounting international pressure.Fear of violence in Abidjan as Gbagbo refuses to step down, France24 (21 December 2010).Tim Cocks, Ivory Coast president has limited time to step down with impunity, Washington Post (1 January 2011). The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) announced that Ouattara had won the race with 54% of the vote, a tally that the United Nations concluded was credible; however, the Constitutional Council, a body dominated by pro-Gbagbo members, annulled the results in Ouattara's electoral strongholds in the north, claiming fraud, and declared Gbagbo the winner with 51% of the vote.Freedom in the World 2013: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties (Freedom House, 2013). In December 2010, both Gbagbo and Ouattara assumed the presidency, triggering a short period of civil conflict in which about 3,000 people were killed.Laurel Wamsley, International Criminal Court Drops War Crimes Charges Against Ex-Ivory Coast Leader, NPR (15 January 2019).
Gbagbo was arrested in 2011 by pro-Ouattara forces, who were supported by French troops.Leader’s Arrest in Ivory Coast Ends Standoff, New York Times (12 April 2011). Gbagbo was extradited to The Hague in November 2011, where he was charged with four counts of crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in connection with the post-election violence.David Smith, Laurent Gbagbo appears before international criminal court, The Guardian (5 December 2011). Gbagbo was the first former head of state to be taken into the court's custody. In January 2019, an ICC panel dismissed the charges against Gbagbo and one of his former ministers, Charles Blé Goudé, determining that the evidence presented was insufficient to prove that the pair committed crimes against humanity. Prosecutors appealed the decision, and Gbagbo was prohibited from returning to Côte d'Ivoire pending the appeal proceedings.ICC grants prosecution request to keep Ivorian ex-leader Gbagbo in custody, France24 (18 January 2019). The ICC ultimately upheld Gbagbo's acquittal, and in April 2021, Ouattara stated he and Blé Goudé were free to return to the country.
Early life and academic career Laurent Gbagbo was born on 31 May 1945 to a Roman Catholic family of the Bété people in Gagnoa in the then French West Africa. He became a history professor and an opponent of the regime of President Félix Houphouët-Boigny. He was imprisoned from 31 March 1971 to January 1973. In 1979, he obtained his doctorate at Paris Diderot University. In 1980, he became Director of the Institute of History, Art, and African Archeology at the University of Abidjan. He participated in a 1982 teachers' strike as a member of the National Trade Union of Research and Higher Education. Gbagbo went into exile in France.
Political career During the 1982 strike, Koudou Gbagbo formed what would become the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI). He returned to Côte d'Ivoire on 13 September 1988 and at the FPI's constitutive congress, held on 19–20 November 1988, he was elected as the party's Secretary-General.
Gbagbo said in July 2008 that he had received crucial support from Blaise Compaoré, formerly the President of Burkina Faso, while he was part of the underground opposition to Houphouët-Boigny."Gbagbo acknowledges receiving underground support from Compaoré against Boigny", African Press Agency, 29 July 2008.
Following the introduction of multiparty politics in 1990, Gbagbo challenged Houphouët-Boigny in the October 1990 presidential election. Gbagbo contended that Houphouët-Boigny, who was either 85 or 90 years old (depending on the source), was not likely to survive a seventh five-year term. This failed to resonate with voters, and Gbagbo officially received 18.3% of the vote against Houphouët-Boigny. In the November 1990 parliamentary election, Gbagbo won a seat in the National Assembly, along with eight other members of the FPI.Robert J. Mundt, "Côte d'Ivoire: Continuity and Change in a Semi-Democracy", Political Reform in Francophone Africa (1997), ed. Clark and Gardinier, pp. 191–192
Gbagbo was elected to a seat from Ouragahio District in Gagnoa Department and was President of the FPI Parliamentary Group from 1990 to 1995. In 1992 he was sentenced to two years in prison and charged with inciting violence, but was released later in the year. The FPI boycotted the 1995 presidential election. In 1996 Gbagbo was re-elected to his seat in the National Assembly from Ouragahio, following a delay in the holding of the election there, and in the same year he was elected as President of the FPI.
At the FPI's 3rd Ordinary Congress on 9–11 July 1999, Gbagbo was chosen as the FPI's candidate for the October 2000 presidential election. That election took place after a December 1999 coup in which retired general Robert Guéï took power. Guéï refused to allow his predecessor as president, Henri Konan Bédié, or former prime minister Alassane Ouattara to run, leaving Gbagbo as the only significant opposition candidate. Guéï claimed victory in the election, held on 22 October 2000. However, after it emerged that Gbagbo had actually won by a significant margin, street protests forced Guéï to flee the capital. Gbagbo installed himself as president on 26 October.
Civil war
Following the contested election of 2000, there were violent clashes between supporters of the FPI and supporters of the RDR. A mass grave of 57 bodies was found in Yopougon, Abidjan, in November 2000, containing the corpses of RDR supporters killed by FPI-aligned militias. The RDR launched an electoral boycott of the December 2000 elections to the parliament. The following month, an attempted coup d'état against Gbagbo occurred. The government then intensified a crackdown on northerners and those thought to be Alassane Ouattara supporters; many were jailed or killed.
On 19 September 2002 a revolt by northerners against Gbagbo's government partly failed. The rebels, calling themselves the Forces Nouvelles, attempted to seize the cities of Abidjan, Bouaké, and Korhogo. They failed to take Abidjan, but were successful in the other two cities, as Gbagbo loyalists, with French military assistance, repulsed the attack. Rebels of the Patriotic Movement of Côte d'Ivoire took control of the northern part of the country.
In March 2003, a new cross-party agreement was made for the formation of a new government led by a consensus figure, Seydou Diarra, and including nine ministers from the rebels, and one year later, UN peacekeeping forces arrived in the country.Ivory Coast profile – Timeline, BBC news (15 January 2019). In March 2004, however, an anti-Gbagbo rally took place in Abidjan; government soldiers responded by killing some 120 people.Tim J. Watts, "Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire)" in Atrocities, Massacres, and War Crimes: An Encyclopedia (ed. Alexander Mikaberidze: Vol. 1: ABC-CLIO, 2013), p. 329. A subsequent UN report concluded that Ivorian government was responsible for the massacre.
Post-Civil War
The peace agreement effectively collapsed in early November 2004 following elections that critics claimed were undemocratic and the rebels' subsequent refusal to disarm. During an airstrike in Bouaké on 6 November 2004, nine French soldiers were killed. While the Ivorian government has claimed the attack on the French soldiers was accidental,Sengupta, Somini (7 November 2004) "Ivory Coast Violence Flares; 9 French and 1 U.S. Death" The New York Times French governmental sources claimed it was deliberate and responded by destroying most Ivorian military aircraft.Navarro, N. and Gnanih, A-H. (14 June 2008) "French foreign minister's visit is first since 2003" France 24 International News"UN endorses plan to leave president in office beyond mandate", IRIN, 14 October 2005.
With the late October deadline approaching in 2006, it was regarded as very unlikely that the election would in fact be held by that point, and the opposition and the rebels rejected the possibility of another term extension for Gbagbo.Joe Bavier, "Ivory Coast Opposition, Rebels Say No to Term Extension for President" , VOA News, 18 August 2006. The UN Security Council endorsed another one-year extension of Gbagbo's term on 1 November 2006; to not forget, many of the rebels held their guns and were prepared to advance again, however, the resolution provided for the strengthening of Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny's powers. Gbagbo said the next day that elements of the resolution deemed to be constitutional violations would not be applied."Partial rejection of UN peace plan", IRIN, 2 November 2006.
A peace deal between the government and the rebels, or New Forces, was signed on 4 March 2007, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and subsequently Guillaume Soro, leader of the New Forces, became prime minister."Former rebel leader takes over as Ivory Coast's prime minister", Associated Press (International Herald Tribune), 4 April 2007."New Ivory Coast govt 'a boost for Gbagbo'", AFP (IOL), 12 April 2007. Those events were seen by some observers as substantially strengthening Gbagbo's position.
Gbagbo visited the north for the first time since the outbreak of the war for a disarmament ceremony, the "peace flame", on 30 July 2007. This ceremony involved burning weapons to symbolize the end of the conflict."Ivory Coast leaders burn weapons", BBC News, 30 July 2007."Côte d'Ivoire: Gbagbo en zone rebelle pour prôner la paix et des élections rapides" , AFP (Jeuneafrique.com), 30 July 2007 . At the ceremony, Gbagbo declared the war over and said that the country should move quickly to elections, which were then planned for early 2008.
On 30 August 2008, Gbagbo was designated the FPI's candidate for the November 2008 presidential election at a party congress; he was the only candidate for the FPI nomination."I Coast President Gbagbo wins party nomination for November poll" , AFP, 30 August 2008. The presidential election was again postponed to 2010.
2010 presidential election and post-election violence