Ivory Coast: arrest of Affi N’Guessan, spokesperson for the opposition

This is a new sign of the hardening of President Ouattara’s regime against the opposition, which considers his candidacy as unconstitutional and therefore his election as illegal. “Affi N’Guessan was arrested during the night. He was going to Bongouanou ”his stronghold, said Eddie Ane, a member of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) of which Mr. Affi N’Guessan, 67, former Prime Minister of Laurent Gbagbo, is the president. “Mr. Affi N’Guessan was arrested near the border with Ghana. He was on the run, ”confirmed a government source, recalling that he was wanted by the authorities for his role in the creation of the“ National Transitional Council ”(CNT). Akoupé is on the road between Abidjan and Bongouanou, the stronghold of Mr. Affi N’Guessan, which is not far from Ghana.

Investigations for “conspiracy against the authority of the State”

“We have heard the news of his arrest. We went around the police stations and police stations, he is not there. He is being held in an undisclosed location. This is the deduction that we make, ”said M^e Félix Boble, one of his lawyers. The prosecutor of Abidjan Richard Adou announced Thursday that Mr. Affi N’Guessan as well as the former minister Abdallah Mabri Toikeusse were “on the run and actively wanted”. MM. Affi N’Guessan and Toikeusse, as well as Maurice Kakou Guikahué, number two of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI, the main opposition party), who has already been arrested, are the subject of investigations for “conspiracy against state authority ”,“ insurrectional movement ”,“ assassination ”and“ acts of terrorism ”, according to the prosecutor. The opposition, which boycotted the October 31 presidential election, the result of which it does not recognize, launched a campaign of civil disobedience before the election and announced the formation of a parallel power with the CNT. President Alassane Ouattara, whom the opposition no longer recognizes as president, was re-elected for a controversial third term by the crushing score of 94.27%.

About 40 people have been killed in election-related violence since August. Several opposition leaders had been stranded at their homes by the police since Tuesday. Mr. Affi N’Guessan, whose house was searched in vain on Thursday, was among the leaders stranded. Among the other opposition leaders blocked: former president Henri Konan Bédié, president of the PDCI, and who had been proclaimed president of the CNT by Mr. Affi N’Guessan.

Konan Bédié only blocked at his home

Mr. Konan Bédié “is not under arrest”, nor under house arrest, said the prosecutor, specifying that the police blocked his home to “put an end to the disturbance of public order” . “Bédié is spared because he is an icon for the Baoulé”, one of the main peoples of Côte d’Ivoire, a source close to power told AFP. On Saturday, his residence was framed by a large police force when he announced that he wanted to receive a delegation of 300 traditional leaders from his Baoulé ethnic group for a meeting that was meant to be symbolic. The whole area was tightly controlled by the police and the press was kept away from the home.

Ten years after the 2010-2011 crisis which left 3,000 dead after Laurent Gbagbo refused to acknowledge his electoral defeat against Alassane Ouattara, some observers fear that the country is once again entering a cycle of tension and violence. Elected in 2010, re-elected in 2015, Alassane Ouattara, 78, announced in March that he was giving up a new candidacy, before changing his mind in August, following the death of his designated dolphin, Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly. The Ivorian fundamental law provides for a maximum of two terms, but the Constitutional Council estimated that with the new Constitution adopted in 2016, the presidential term counter was reset to zero. What the opposition disputes.