Ivory Coast Election Violence : Prosecution Of Instigators Recommended

A Special Unit to Investigate Violence related to the 2020 Presidential Election has made public its report. The report submitted on Monday, December 27, 2021 in the capital Abidjan states that the government will lay charges against all those who contributed to deadly civil unrest over the 2020 presidential election period, Public Prosecutor Richard Adou said. “They will all be subjected to the rigor of the criminal law, the objective being to fight against the impunity of the perpetrators of serious offenses,” he told reporters. 
For six months, the unit made up of 40 police officers and gendarmes under the leadership of the Abidjan Prosecutor, Richard Adou carried out investigations on the politico-ethnic violence which left 85 dead and over 500 wounded between August and November 2020. At the time the opposition rejected the candidacy of President Alassane Ouattara for a third term then contested his re-election. According to the prosecutor, more than 270 people are involved. It is now up to the investigating judges to choose who and when to prosecute.
Since 2020, 233 suspects have been arrested. Most have been released and placed under judicial supervision, but 11 remain in preventive detention for their alleged involvement in the most serious crimes, such as the beheading of Toussaint N’guessan Koffi in Daoukro. 40 other people are also actively sought, adds prosecutor Richard Adou. “The manipulation of people based on ethnicity, politics and religion, as well as impunity remains a major drive towards the escalation of violence. Youth have been used as executing arm by political leaders. All those who directly or indirectly have allowed, incited, armed or financed the violence must answer.”
According to The Guardian, Pascal Affi N'guessan, Simone Gbagbo, Maurice Kakou Guikahue, Assoa Adou, Toikeusse Mabri, Guilla...