Briefing Room: Côte d’Ivoire
By czarniesalazar | Published: 12 April, 2011
The arrest of strongman Laurent Gbagbo by French-backed forces has ended an extended political standoff in Côte d’Ivoire. While the development has raised hopes of a resolution to the country’s renewed civil war, it is unlikely to necessitate an immediate cease in fighting, and president Alassane Ouattara faces significant challenges in reuniting a divided nation.
Mr Gbagbo, who refused step down after losing November elections, was arrested by forces loyal to his opponent, the internationally-recognised president Mr Ouattara. Following his arrest, a submissive Mr Gbagbo was taken to the Hotel Golf in Abidjan, which has served as his rival’s headquarters. UN officials said he would be moved within the next few hours to a secure location in the north.
Mr Ouattara made a televised appeal for peace shortly after the arrest, and has said his rival’s camp will face justice. The International Criminal Court is in talks with the West African state about referring allegations of atrocities to the court to facilitate an investigation.
Mr Gbagbo’s capture finally allows Mr Ouattara to assert control over Côte d’Ivoire after a more than four month tug-of-war with his rival. However, the president is already facing questions regarding France’s role in the arrest. His opponent was detained after more than 30 French armoured vehicles closed in on his residence in Abidjan. The advance followed attacks by French and UN helicopters, which destroyed Mr Gbagbo’s heavy weapons and damaged the presidential bunker.
Mr Gbagbo has been eager to paint the president as a puppet of the country’s former colonial leader; a picture Mr Ouattara’s camp is trying to dispel with persistent indications that it was local forces that arrested the strongman.
“It’s almost irrelevant who put the handcuffs on Gbagbo in the end, because it’s clear that the French and the UN forces had a large role to play in this,” says Richard Downie, deputy director and fellow, Africa Programme, at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “It’s hugely politically damaging for Ouattara to be associated with the French in this way, and to have him perceived as being propelled to office by French assistance rather than through the ballot box.”
Consequently, Mr Downie explains, “Ouattara is going to be viewed with enormous suspicion by a large proportion of people in Côte d’Ivoire. Trying to win them round is going to be his main challenge.”
While a forthright approach to dispelling the notion that the French delivered the final blow to Mr Gbagbo’s rule could ease tensions, it may not be enough to abate violence. The elections – aimed to reunite a country left divided across a north-south axis after its 2002 civil war – have reawakened ethnic hostilities, seeing hundreds of people killed and atrocities against civilians committed by both camps, aid agencies say.
Local militia groups such as the pro-Gbagbo Jeunes Patriotes are unlikely to lay down arms immediately. “There’s a significant threat of reprisal attacks against foreigners and also against anyone perceived to be an Ouattara supporter,” Mr Downie says. Meanwhile the actions of northern rebel movement – the Forces Nouvelles – which, finding a common enemy in Mr Gbagbo, sided with Mr Ouattara during the standoff, remain unpredictable.
Uniting divided militia groups will be an immediate challenge for the president. “These are the very tensions that unravelled the peace agreement from the last civil war: the failure to adequately disarm and demobilise these various forces and unite them under one national umbrella was really at the heart of the problems,” Mr Downie indicates. “It’s a tough ask for Ouattara and that is his number one challenge – the security sector reform side of things and forging some sort of national military that can bring people together, respect human rights and act professionally rather than commit abuses against the population.”
If human rights transgressions committed by soldiers affiliated to Mr Outtara have been damaging to his legitimacy, ensuring transparent investigations into these abuses will be central to regenerating any sense of validity as president. Mr Ouattara has promised a South-African style Truth and Reconciliation Commission to shed light on crimes committed by both camps.
