Ivory Coast: Former Prime Minister ends his exile.

“I announce here and now that I am ending my exile because it is painful for me to live far from my ancestral and native land in Africa,” said former Ivorian Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, in a five-minute speech, published on his X account (ex- Twitter).

Guillaume Soro claims that we "attempted to arrest him" at Istanbul airport on November 3 in order to extradite him to Ivory Coast. He also detailed having been successively to France, Belgium, Dubai, and to the confines of the Asian continent" in recent years.

 “I won’t go any further”

"I will not go any further in my exile; I refuse to be a fugitive. I am not guilty of any crime", he continues to affirm that he wants to contribute to the reconciliation of the sons and daughters of the Ivory Coast.  But Guillaume Soro did not specify a date for a possible return to his country.

Already in exile, Guillaume Soro was sentenced in Ivory Coast in June 2021 to life imprisonment for "endangering state security", accused of having fomented a civil and military insurrection aimed at overthrowing the regime of current President Alassane Ouattara, in 2019. In April 2020, he had already been sentenced to 20 years in prison for embezzlement of public funds.

Leader of the rebellion that controlled the northern half of Ivory Coast [Côte d'Ivoire] in the 2000s, Guillaume Soro militarily helped Alassane Ouattara come to power during the post-electoral crisis of 2010-2011 against outgoing President Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to admit defeat.

Guillaume Soro became Mr. Ouattara's first head of government, then president of the National Assembly in 2012, before a break in early 2019, due, according to several observers, to Mr. Soro's presidential ambitions.

In May, he said that no reason prevented him from being a candidate for the next presidential election in 2025.

@RfI, Aljazeera....