FORMER president Laurent Gbagbo was returning to Ivory Coast on Thursday for the first time in nearly a decade, after he was cleared of crimes against humanity and his once-bitter rival welcomed him back in the name of reconciliation.
Gbagbo left the country in humiliation in 2011, after his refusal to accept electoral defeat sparked a conflict that ended in his arrest and transfer to The Hague.
The 76-year-old’s homecoming will be a key test of stability in Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest cocoa producer and the wealthiest country in francophone West Africa.
Gbagbo boarded a commercial flight to Abidjan from Brussels on Thursday morning, his spokesman Justin Katinan Kone, told AFP.
The Belgian capital has been his home since the International Criminal Court (ICC) acquitted him in a shock decision in 2019. An appeal against the ruling failed in March, paving the way for his return.
He was
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