IVORY Coast has issued passports to former president Laurent Gbagbo, allowing him to return from exile in Belgium before the end of the year following his acquittal on war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court, his lawyer said on Friday.
Gbagbo welcomed the move as a conciliatory gesture from President Alassane Ouattara, whose bitter standoff with opponents over his election for a third term has called into question the West African nation’s hard-won stability.
Gbagbo has not said what he plans to do on his return, but his presence in Ivory Coast could energise opposition factions after their failure to derail October’s vote through a boycott.
Gbagbo, who served as president from 2000 until his arrest in 2011 at the end of a brief civil war caused by his refusal to concede electoral defeat to Ouattara, had hoped to challenge Ouattara again at the ballot box.
But he was
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