Gbagbo Seizes Ivory Coast: A Tumultuous Presidency Begins

Laurent Gbagbo seized the presidency of Cote d'Ivoire after a popular uprising toppled the military ruler Robert Guei on October 25, 2000. Guei had come to power in a 1999 coup and then attempted to steal a disputed presidential election by declaring himself the winner before all votes were counted. Citizens poured into the streets of Abidjan, and soldiers refused to fire on the crowds. Guei fled the capital, and Gbagbo, the actual election winner based on the counted votes, was installed as president. But the democratic promise of the uprising evaporated almost immediately. The election had excluded Alassane Ouattara, the main opposition candidate, on the basis of contested nationality claims rooted in the discriminatory concept of "Ivoirite," which defined national identity along ethnic and regional lines. Gbagbo's presidency descended into civil war in 2002, when rebel forces seized the northern half of the country and a French military intervention imposed a ceasefire line that effectively divided the nation in two. The conflict killed thousands and displaced over a million people. A peace agreement eventually allowed the 2010 presidential election, which Ouattara won. Gbagbo refused to leave office, barricading himself in the presidential residence and sparking a second round of violence that killed over three thousand people. French and United Nations forces eventually captured him in April 2011, and he was transferred to the International Criminal Court to face charges of crimes against humanity. He was acquitted in 2019 after the prosecution's case collapsed, and he returned to Cote d'Ivoire in 2021 to a divided reception.