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Benin + 9 more

Update No. 10: Côte d'Ivoire Situation

Attachments

Highlights

• Last week’s cease-fire enabled the Forces de Défense et de Sécurité (FDS) to regroup and take control of the Plateau and Cocody neighbourhoods in Abidjan using small arms and mortar fire. Targets, among others, included the Hôtel du Golfe where the elected President Alassane Dramane Ouattara and his government had been headquartered throughout the conflict.

• Laurent Gbagbo and his wife were arrested on 11 April and removed from the bunker under his residence in the Cocody neighbourhood of Abidjan by the Forces Républicaines de Côte d’Ivoire (FRCI).

• The outgoing president and his wife were held in the custody of Ouattara’s forces at the Hôtel du Golfe before being transferred to an unknown location.

• Officials from Ouattara’s government announced that Laurent Gbagbo will be tried and brought to justice. The International Criminal Court has expressed its willingness to open an inquiry on the massacres perpetrated and is undertaking a preliminary assessment of the situation in Côte d’Ivoire for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.

• The European Union relaxed sanctions, releasing the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro from an EU asset freeze and France announced an aid packaged of € 400 million to assist Côte d’Ivoire in recovering from the political crisis.

• During the fighting between the FRCI and FDS, Liberia and Ghana experienced significant influxes of Ivorian refugees and asylum-seekers fleeing from the violence.