Cote d'Ivoire: Guilty Verdict for Soro Puts Ivory Coast On Political Alert - and the ICC Back in Play

analysis

A political earthquake is rumbling through Ivory Coast. On April 28, an Ivorian court found Guillaume Soro, a hopeful in the October presidential election, guilty of embezzlement and money laundering. The 48-year-old former rebel commander-in-chief was sentenced to 20 years in jail.

The political dimension of Soro's conviction was not lost on Ivorian citizens. They have watched his rise to power over the past two decades. But his presidential ambitions largely explain his judicial downfall. Soro's conviction can be understood as the latest chapter of a power struggle that began to unravel since president Alassane Ouattara's re-election in October 2015.

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