\n Ivory Coast's former president Laurent Gbagbo returns on Thursday to a country that he left in humiliation almost a decade ago, forced out after a bloody conflict and dispatched to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity.\n<\/p>\n
\n His homecoming will be a key test of stability in Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa producer and the wealthiest country in francophone West Africa.\n<\/p>\n
\n Gbagbo, 76, is set to arrive aboard a commercial flight from Brussels, his home since the International Criminal Court (ICC) acquitted him in 2019. An appeal against the ruling failed in March, paving the way for his return.\n<\/p>\n
\n Gbagbo was ousted in April 2011 after a war sparked by his refusal to accept electoral defeat at the hands of Alassane Ouattara, the current president.\n<\/p>\n
\n Around 3,000 people died in the months-long conflict, which left Ivory Coast divided along north-south lines.\n<\/p>\n
\n Today, Gbagbo has been recast in the role of statesman, called upon to help national reconciliation after elections last year left scores of dead.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ouattara, 79, has facilitated his return, issuing his rival with a diplomatic passport and promising him the rewards and status due to ex-presidents.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a \"powerful message,\" Ouattara has made the presidential salon at Abidjan airport available for his return, the secretary of Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Party, Assoua Adou, told AFP on Monday.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Veteran -\n<\/p>\n
\n Gbagbo is among a handful of powerful, ageing politicians whose careers were forged in Ivory Coast's early years of independence from France.\n<\/p>\n
\n A historian and socialist from a humble background in a country whose politics is dominated by well-off families, he launched a campaign in the 1970s to end the country's single-party system.\n<\/p>\n
\n He was jailed for almost two years and in the 1980s spent years in exile in France.\n<\/p>\n
\n After he returned and a multiparty system was introduced, Gbagbo became the sole opposition candidate to Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Ivory Coast's revered founding father, in elections in 1990.\n<\/p>\n
\n Gbagbo was elected president in 2000, but his tenure was marked by division and rebellion.\n<\/p>\n
\n Elections that should have been held in 2005 were postponed again and again until 2010, when he lost to Ouattara, and conflict erupted.\n<\/p>\n
\n Gbagbo has accused France of being behind the \"plot\" that led to his arrest on April 11, 2011 by Ouattara's French-backed forces.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Calls for return -\n<\/p>\n
\n Gbagbo's supporters chorused for his return after his acquittal by the ICC in 2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n But their campaign gained special traction last year after Ouattara declared he would bid for a third term in office -- a move that critics said violated the constitution.\n<\/p>\n
\n After scores of deaths and a ballot largely boycotted by the opposition, Ouattara found himself re-elected by a landslide -- but presiding over a divided country fearful of another descent into bloodshed.\n<\/p>\n
\n In his home region of Gagnoa, where he is a cult figure, Gbagbo's face has been emblazoned on caps, T-shirts and colourful kaftans proclaiming that the \"Lion of Africa Is Back\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"He was a perfect president,\" said one of his supporters, Agnes Koudy. \"With him, there was joy in being alive. We've missed him so much.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Joseph Goli Obou, 71, a traditional chief clad in a gown bearing Gbagbo's face, said: \"When a son is gone from you for a while, you do not stand back when he comes back.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I am getting the whole village swept. I am preparing food for the people who are coming with him -- sheep, beef. I have already prepared his house, his bed.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The FPI have insisted that Gbagbo is returning in peace. In March, his party took part in legislative elections, ending a decade-long boycott of the ballot box.\n<\/p>\n
\n But the authorities have been worried that celebrations could turn violent or that Gbagbo, a skilled orator and wily politician, may not play the alloted role of elder statesman.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The wounds are still open... and the authorities are worried that Gbagbo will stir up the crowds again, which is one of his hallmarks,\" said Rinaldo Depagne, a researcher at the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.\n<\/p>\n
\n If Gbagbo actively works on reconciliation, \"this would be a good thing, because he carries considerable weight,\" Depagne said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ivory Coast's former president Laurent Gbagbo returns on Thursday to a country that he left in humiliation almost a decade ago, forced out after a bloody conflict and dispatched to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity. His homecoming will be a key test of stability in Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-78592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n