LAURENT GBAGBO

Former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo says he plans to be involved in politics until the day he dies.

The International Criminal Court has withdrawn its arrest warrant for the wife of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo.

Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has attended Mass, one of his first public appearances since returning home after nearly a decade in exile.

A selection of the week's best photos of Africans from across the continent and elsewhere.

Laurent Gbagbo was taken to the ICC in 2011 on charges of crimes against humanity.

Former President Laurent Gbagbo has returned home to Ivory Coast a decade after his refusal to concede defeat in an election sparked months of violence that left more than 3,000 people dead.

Former President Laurent Gbagbo is returning home to Ivory Coast for the first time in nearly a decade.

I thank all the people of Ivory Coast and Africa for their support,” he said. It was not clear what his next step will be or when he might seek to return to Ivory Coast. He wants to return after seven years.”More than 3,000 people were killed after Gbagbo refused to accept defeat by his rival, current Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara. AdGbagbo still has strong support in Ivory Coast and his followers say they have been left out the country’s reconciliation process in the years since his ouster. ___Associated Press writer Toussaint N'Gotta in Abidjan, Ivory Coast contributed.

Ivory Coast's electoral commission said Tuesday that President Alassane Ouattara had overwhelmingly won a third term in office after his two main opponents boycotted the election and called his candidacy illegal. On Monday, they discounted Ouattara's victory, saying his mandate to lead Ivory Coast had expired. There have been widespread fears of post-election violence erupting in Ivory Coast, where more than 3,000 people were killed following a disputed vote a decade ago. “Ivory Coast must definitively turn the page on these electoral crises.”Ouattara has been in power for nearly a decade. Ouattara was the internationally recognized winner of a disputed 2010 election in which then-President Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede defeat.

By evening, the country's electoral commission had released provisional results from fewer than half of the country's 108 departments. It wasn't immediately clear when a final tally would be announced, but the opposition continued to attack the legitimacy of the vote itself. Pascal Affi N’Guessan, one of the top opposition candidates who later boycotted the vote, said late Monday that Henri Konan Bedie, the country's 86-year-old former president, would head up a council of transition. Only one of the three opposition candidates actively campaigned against Ouattara after the two others called for a boycott. The observer mission also said Monday that the exclusion of most candidates had compromised the integrity of Ivory Coast's election.

A woman sells her goods at a local market in Abobo neighborhood, suburbs of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)ABIDJAN – Ivory Coast residents braced for more unrest Sunday as election officials began releasing the first results from the country's presidential election and opponents of President Alassane Ouattara stepped up their criticism of his quest for a third term. Soro, a former prime minister and president of Ivory Coast's National Assembly, was disqualified earlier this year from running in Saturday's election. Soro's comments about his former mentor came as some Ivorians feared a possible return to the electoral violence that had engulfed the country nearly a decade ago. “Let them stop because Ivory Coast needs peace.”___Associated Press writer Toussaint N'Gotta contributed.

ABIDJAN – Tens of thousands of security forces deployed across Ivory Coast on Saturday as the leading opposition parties boycotted the election, calling President Alassane Ouattara’s bid for a third term illegal. In the Abobo neighborhood of Abidjan, voters lined up to cast ballots peacefully despite opposition threats to block polling stations from opening. “All Ivorians who want peace should vote today,” said Mamery Doumbia, standing outside the Abobo Sagbe voting center. The top two opposition candidates, Pascal Affi N’Guessan and Henri Konan Bedie, have pulled out of the race in a boycott. The president maintains the two-term limit does not apply to him because a new constitution was approved in a 2016 referendum.

“Don’t accept being prevented from voting, you are going to protect the polling stations,” he told them. “Ivory Coast wants peace, we don’t accept disorder," Ouattara said. There will be no elections on Oct. 31 in Ivory Coast," N’Guessan said in an interview this week with France 24 and Radio France Internationale. “Ivory Coast is not in crisis. Ivory Coast is at peace.