ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast authorities have detained a senior aide to opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo, accusing him of having called for an uprising ahead of last month’s presidential polls, the prosecutor said on Wednesday.
Damana Pickass was detained near Abidjan on Tuesday, prosecutor Oumar Braman Kone said in a statement.
Pickass is the chief coordinator of the Common Front, which groups the two main opposition parties headed by Gbagbo and former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam.
Both Gbagbo and Thiam were barred from standing in October 25 presidential polls that saw 83-year-old President Alassane Outtara secure a fourth term in the world’s top cocoa producer.
The Front had called for demonstrations in the run-up to the election to denounce the exclusion of its candidates, despite the government banning rallies by parties not taking part in the vote.
Another protest is planned for Saturday.
Kone said that political figures including Pickass had “called for a popular uprising and the overthrow of the Republic’s institutions.”
Those calls “resulted in acts of violence that threatened national security,” he added.
Gbagbo’s party denounced the arrest as the “ongoing persecution of the opposition.”
Pickass was “being hunted down,” Sebastien Dano Djedje, executive president of the African People’s Party – Ivory Coast (PPA-CI), one of the two parties making up the Common Front, said on Wednesday.
The October 25 election was largely peaceful but did see some violence, in a country where presidential elections are often synonymous with political tensions.
At least 11 people died in demonstrations before the vote or in clashes on election day. The opposition claims a death toll of 27.
More than 100 people have been sentenced to three years in prison for participating in the demonstrations, according to their lawyers.
Ivory Coast detains senior opposition official
https://arab.news/y8jnp
Ivory Coast detains senior opposition official
- Damana Pickass is the chief coordinator of the Common Front
- The October 25 election was largely peaceful but did see some violence
Blair dropped from Gaza ‘peace board’ after Arab objections
- Former UK PM was viewed with hostility over role in Iraq War
- He reportedly met Netanyahu late last month to discuss plans
LONDON: Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has been withdrawn from the US-led Gaza “peace council” following objections by Arab and Muslim countries, The Guardian reported.
US President Donald Trump has said he would chair the council. Blair was long floated for a prominent role in the administration, but has now been quietly dropped, according to the Financial Times.
Blair had been lobbying for a position in the postwar council and oversaw a plan for Gaza from his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change that involved Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Supporters of the former British leader cited his role in the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of conflict and violence in Northern Ireland.
His detractors, however, highlighted his former position as representative of the Middle East Quartet, made up of the UN, EU, Russia and US, which aimed to bring about peace in the Middle East.
Furthermore, Blair’s involvement in the Iraq War is viewed with hostility across the Arab world.
After Trump revealed his 20-point plan to end the Israel-Hamas war in September, Blair was the only figure publicly named as taking a potential role in the postwar peace council.
The US president supported his appointment and labeled him a “very good man.”
A source told the Financial Times that Blair’s involvement was backed by the US and Israel.
“The Americans like him and the Israelis like him,” the person said.
The US plan for Gaza was criticized in some quarters for proposing a separate Gaza framework that did not include the West Bank, stoking fears that the occupied Palestinian territories would become separate polities indefinitely.
Trump said in October: “I’ve always liked Tony, but I want to find out that he’s an acceptable choice to everybody.”
Blair is reported to have held an unpublicized meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late last month to discuss plans.
His office declined to comment to The Guardian, but an ally said the former prime minister would not be sitting on Gaza’s “board of peace.”
