ormer Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo on Sunday launched a new political party he hopes will return him to the presidency.
\nGbagbo, with a decade-long exile behind him, this weekend oversaw his new African People’s Party’s congress as he seeks to “reunite the left” and use the occasion as a springboard to the 2025 presidential election.<\/p>\n

“We will resume our journey together,” Gbagbo told delegates in his first speech before a big audience since his return to Ivory coast in mid-June.<\/p>\n

“I will be in politics until I die!” he added, to a standing ovation. Gbagbo was, as expected, elected leader of the new party during the congress. <\/p>\n

“Look at the world and see which are the powerful ones, they are the big countries of size, China, the United States, Russia, Canada,” he told his audience.<\/p>\n

“As long as we are in micro-states we are nothing. African States unite!” he added, referring to one of the major congress themes — African sovereignty in the face of the influence of Western powers.<\/p>\n

Political representatives from a dozen African countries attended this weekend’s congress.<\/p>\n

The 76-year-old, whose 2000-2011 rule was marked by turbulence and division in the world’s biggest cocoa producer, has been highly visible since returning.<\/p>\n

He was removed from office in April 2011 after a short civil war that claimed 3,000 lives, sparked by his refusal to accept electoral defeat by the current president, Alassane Ouattara.<\/p>\n

Gbagbo was then flown to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity resulting from the conflict, but was eventually acquitted.<\/p>\n

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ormer Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo on Sunday launched a new political party he hopes will return him to the presidency. Gbagbo, with a decade-long exile behind him, this weekend oversaw his new African People’s Party’s congress as he seeks to “reunite the left” and use the occasion as a springboard to the 2025 presidential election. “We will resume our journey together,” Gbagbo told delegates in his first speech before a big audience since his return to Ivory coast in mid-June. “I will be in politics until I die!” he added, to a standing ovation. Gbagbo was, as expected, elected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[544,545],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n