Assalaamu Alaikum - Senior Opposition Aide Detained in Ivory Coast
Assalaamu alaikum. Authorities in Ivory Coast have detained a senior aide to opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo, saying he urged an uprising ahead of last month’s presidential vote, the prosecutor said. The aide, Damana Pickass, was taken into custody near Abidjan on Tuesday, prosecutor Oumar Braman Kone said. Pickass coordinates the Common Front, which brings together the two main opposition parties led by Gbagbo and former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam. Both Gbagbo and Thiam were barred from running in the October 25 presidential election, which resulted in 83-year-old President Alassane Ouattara winning a fourth term in the country that’s the world’s biggest cocoa producer. The Common Front had urged demonstrations before the vote to protest the exclusion of its candidates, despite a government ban on rallies by parties not participating in the election. Another protest is scheduled for Saturday. Kone said political figures, including Pickass, had “called for a popular uprising and the overthrow of the Republic’s institutions,” and that those calls “led to violence that threatened national security.” Gbagbo’s party called the arrest part of “ongoing persecution of the opposition.” Sebastien Dano Djedje, executive president of the African People’s Party – Ivory Coast (PPA-CI), one of the Common Front parties, said Pickass was being “hunted down.” The October 25 vote was largely calm but did see incidents of violence in a country where presidential contests often bring intense tensions. At least 11 people were reported killed in demonstrations before the vote or in clashes on election day; the opposition says the toll is 27. Lawyers for protesters say more than 100 people have since been sentenced to three years in prison for taking part in the demonstrations.
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