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THREAD – Côte d’Ivoire, elections, human rights
We released today research on the dozens of political and intercommunal killings that accompanied Côte d’Ivoire’s October 31 presidential election, in which President Alassane Ouattara won a third term. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/12/02/cote-divoire-post-election-violence-repression
We released today research on the dozens of political and intercommunal killings that accompanied Côte d’Ivoire’s October 31 presidential election, in which President Alassane Ouattara won a third term. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/12/02/cote-divoire-post-election-violence-repression
We interviewed 24 victims of and witnesses to violence from Abidjan, Oumé, Toumodi, Elibou, and M’Batto, who described how young men, both government and opposition supporters, were hacked to death with machetes and a family burnt alive in their home.
Ouattara participated in the election despite a two-term limit on presidents, arguing that the passage of the new constitution in 2016 “reset the clock” and allowed him to run again.
Opposition parties boycotted the poll, and the election day saw violent confrontations between opposition supporters seeking to prevent the vote and pro-government groups who wanted it to take place.
Clashes continued after election day, and Côte d’Ivoire’s National Human Rights Council said on November 10 that 55 people were killed and 282 injured between October 31 and November 10.
Security forces failed to adequately protect civilians and in at least one case used excessive force to disperse opposition-led protests, shooting dead at least two demonstrators and beating a man unconscious.
The full government response to our research is available here:
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2020/12/GovernmentResponseNovember252020.pdf
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2020/12/GovernmentResponseNovember252020.pdf
Although much of the violence was driven by national politics, confrontations initially sparked by the election evolved into brutal local clashes between different neighborhoods or villages, fueled by longstanding tensions over ethnicity and nationality.
The language that participants in the violence used – from both sides – harked back to the weaponization of nationality and ethnic identities that drove some of the worst violence of the 2010-11 post-election crisis, in which 3,000 people were killed.
In the aftermath of the election, Ivorian authorities arrested a dozen opposition party members, who rejected the results and said they had formed a National Transitional Council to organize new elections.
The opposition members, including Pascal Affi N’Guessan, a former prime minister, were held incommunicado and questioned without access to lawyers for several days after their arrest.
Three opposition members, including N’Guessan, remain in detention, while nine others have been released on conditional bail.
The brutal killings of the last month, and the ethnic and political tensions it so easily inflamed, raised the specter of a return to an escalating spiral of violence.
Key international actors, including the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), have called for dialogue between the government and opposition.
But respect for human rights, including the right to freedom of expression and assembly for opposition leaders and their supporters, will be a key ingredient to a peaceful resolution of the crisis.
