Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara secured a fourth term on Monday, according to the provisional results of the Independent Electoral Commission. Nearly nine million voters were eligible to cast their ballots on Saturday. 

The Ivory Coast heads to the polls on Saturday. Five candidates – among them President Alassane Ouattara – are competing for the top job, while several key rivals have been excluded from the race. 

The two main opposition leaders are barred from Saturday's presidential vote, as a 44,000-strong security operation is deployed nationwide.

Unlike her ex-husband Laurent Gbagbo, who served as president from 2000 to 2010 and is barred from running, Simone Gbagbo is set to face his former archrival at the polls: President Alassane Ouattara, the clear favorite in the race.

In President Alassane Ouattara’s stronghold of Abobo, a working-class commune in Abidjan’s north, the incumbent’s supporters are convinced that he will win Saturday’s presidential election in a first-round “knockout blow”. FRANCE 24 spoke to some of the president’s most ardent fans about what three terms of Ouattara have done for the neighbourhood.

Protests have been banned and opposition figures sidelined as 83-year-old president ignores calls to step down

Opponents including ex-Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam are barred from standing in October vote

Four major opposition figures will be unable to contest Ivory Coast's October presidential election, the country's electoral commission announced Wednesday, having been struck from the final voter list. 

Abidjan (AFP) – Ivory Coast's main opposition leader Tidjane Thiam, struck off the electoral list in a row over his nationality, told AFP Wednesday his party would not replace him as its candidate in October's presidential election.

Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo agreed on Saturday to lead the party he founded into the 2025 presidential elections, spokesman Katinan Kone told Reuters following a meeting of the party's central committee. 

Ivorian-French banker Tidjane Thiam was Friday elected leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Ivory Coast, a victory which puts him in position to contest the next presidential election in 2025.

Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara has removed the prime minister and dissolved his government, the presidency's secretary general Aboudramane Cisse said on Friday.

Former Ivory Coast President Henri Konan Bédié, part of an old guard of politicians who dominated politics in the West African nation for a generation, has died aged 89, a close relative told Reuters on Tuesday.

Charles Ble Goude, a key figure in post-electoral violence that swept Ivory Coast 11 years ago, wants to make a low-key homecoming this weekend, his representatives said on Thursday.

The International Criminal Court has dropped its arrest warrant for Ivory Coast’s former first lady Simone Gbagbo over post-election violence that killed thousands in 2010-2011, according to a decision made public Thursday.

Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, acquitted in March of charges of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC), arrives home in Abidjan on Thursday. Arrested in April 2011 during a post-presidential election crisis that saw more than 3,000 people killed, Gbagbo has endured many political battles during a long and tumultous career.

Disinformation online has led to a sluggish vaccine roll-out in Ivory Coast. Ivorian and international health authorities have told FRANCE 24 that they are concerned about the pandemic of fake news. While this problem is not unique to Ivory Coast, the West African state is lagging behind a number of other countries in the region when it comes to vaccination rates.

Ivory Coast's Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko, who was seen as a possible successor to President Alassane Ouattara, has died in a hospital in southwest Germany, two days after his 56th birthday, the government said on Wednesday.

Ivory Coast's ruling party has won an absolute majority in parliament, the country's electoral commission announced on Tuesday, three days after a peaceful vote raised hopes that the country's recent violent tensions were behind it.

Ivory Coast's top court on Monday cleared the path for President Alassane Ouattara to seek a contentious third term, as protests turned violent in several cities and fears grew of a repeat of the conflict that claimed 3,000 lives in the West African country a decade ago.