Laurent Gbagbo News

Two years since Ivory Coast's post-election violence came to an end, rape remains a problem throughout the country.

Human Rights Watch on Tuesday urged Ivory Coast authorities to carry out a "credible investigation" of a militia chief whom rights groups suspect of playing a key role in deadly post-election violence in 2011.

A militia leader accused of grave crimes during Ivory Coast's 2010-11 postelection violence was taken into custody Saturday not far from the national park where his forces had been illegally occupying in the country's volatile western region, officials said.

Dosso Abou clears brush to support himself, his wife and their five children, Bouake, Ivory Coast, May 4, 2013.

About 200 fighters loyal to former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo will be repatriated from Togo after two years of exile following their country's 2010-11 postelection conflict, government spokesman Bruno Kone said.

"It is important that the authorities give clear signal on their willingness to assure equity of the justice machinery," said Doudou Diene, the UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Cote d'Ivoire, at the end of a visit to the country.

Slowly, African leaders are beginning to see the needlessness of wars and conflicts in their countries.

Ivory Coast has a ways to go before it makes a clean break from civil conflict that resurfaced in the wake of disputed 2010 elections, a rights official said.

Wary of a backlash, Cte d'Ivoire's government has hesitated to charge its own supporters of crimes committed during the 2010-2011 poll violence, something that has raised doubts about its commitment to impartial justice, say analysts.

Zambian Vice President Guy Scott says South Africa is backward in terms of development, despite the country being Africa's biggest economy, according to a report.

Ivory Coast's former first lady, wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, was rushed to hospital on Thursday with an unspecified ailment, her lawyer and an official from her political party said.

About 3,000 lives could have been spared and crimes against humanity charges withheld if former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo didn't listen to his wife, according to Kenya's former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

"Warlord-style predatory economic activities" of ex-Ivory Coast rebel leaders integrated into the military include smuggling cocoa beans, a U.N. report said.

A billboard in Abidjan's Cocody neighbourhood urges Ivoirians to refrain from defacing campaign materials.

Ivory Coast's justice minister says the government is open to investigating top security officials accused by United Nations experts of raking in millions of dollars through "warlord-style predatory economic activities." Gnenema Coulibaly said on Monday that the government would need to see proof, but that "the government cannot protect someone who ... (more)

A report released by a United Nations commission this week said it has identified thousands of ammunition rounds produced in Sudan that were used by forces loyal to former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo.

Rebels in Ivory Coast who helped bring President Alassane Ouattara to power are not only commanding the nation's armed forces but are raking in millions of dollars from illegal smuggling and a parallel taxation system, U.N. experts said in a report circulated Friday.

A new report from a U.N. expert panel suggests former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo received substantial ammunition transfers from Sudan as he clung to power during postelection violence two years ago.

Lanny Davis' stupidity knows no bounds. After being skewered in this strip, Davis is outraged that people would continue to highlight how morally bankrupt he is.