The 2010–11 Ivorian crisis was a political crisis in Ivory Coast which began after Laurent Gbagbo, the President of Ivory Coast since 2000, was proclaimed the winner of the Ivorian election of 2010, the first election in the country in 10 years. The opposition candidate, Alassane Ouattara, and a number of countries, organisations and leaders worldwide claimed Ouattara had won the election. After months of attempted negotiation and sporadic violence, the crisis entered a decisive stage as Ouattara's forces began a military offensive in which they quickly gained control of most of the country and besieged key targets in Abidjan, the country's largest city. At the time, international organizations reported numerous human rights violations, and the UN undertook its own military action with the stated objective to protect itself and civilians.
A significant step in bringing an end to the crisis occurred on 11 April 2011 upon the capture and arrest of Gbagbo in Abidjan by pro-Ouattara forces backed by French forces.
Announcement of results and post-election conflict
On 2 December 2010, Youssouf Bakayoko, head of the Ivorian Commission Electorale Indépendante (CEI), announced provisional results showing that Alassane Ouattara had won the Ivorian election of 2010 in the second round with 54.1% of the vote, against 45.9% for Laurent Gbagbo; he reported that turnout was 81.09%. Results had been expected and then postponed for days, beyond the deadline, and Bakayoko's appearance to announce the results—at an Abidjan hotel heavily guarded by the UN—took the press by surprise. Bakayoko reportedly chose to announce the results at the hotel, which Ouattara had been using as "his base", because he wanted to have the security of UN protection when doing so. According to the 2003 Peace Accords signed in the suburbs of Paris, the majority of the CEI must consist of politicians of the opposition (Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire – African Democratic Rally and Rally of the Republicans).
Paul Yao N'Dre, the President of the Constitutional Council (a body that was viewed by the opposition as favoring Gbagbo, because N'Dre was considered an ally of the President), then took to the airwaves to say that the CEI had no authority left to announce any results, because it had already missed its deadline to announce them, and consequently the results were invalid. According to N'Dre, the passing of the deadline meant that only the Constitutional Council was "authorised to announce decisions on the contested results." It was widely presumed that the Court would issue a ruling favoring Gbagbo, although the CEI's results indicated that Gbagbo could only be credited with victory if hundreds of thousands of votes were invalidated.
At the heart of the dispute lies article 94 of the Constitution of Côte d'Ivoire, which reads:
The Constitutional Council shall control the regularity of the operations of the referendum and proclaims the results.
The Council shall decide on:
– the eligibility of the candidates to the presidential and legislative elections;
– the disputes concerning the election of the President of the Republic and of the Deputies.
The Constitutional Council shall proclaim the final results of the presidential elections.
Shortly after the announcements, the military sealed the country's borders.
Double victory claims
On 3 December, the Constitutional Council declared Gbagbo winner. N'Dre announced that the results in seven northern regions were cancelled, and on that basis declaring the outcome narrowly in favor of Gbagbo, who was credited with 51.45% of the vote while Ouattara had 48.55%.
On the basis of the CEI's results, Ouattara maintained that he was "the elected President" and said that the Constitutional Council had "abused its authority, the whole world knows it, and I am sorry for my country's image". He had the clear backing of the international and regional community for his claim to victory, but top officers in the military appeared to stand firmly behind Gbagbo.
The New Forces and Prime Minister Guillaume Soro both supported Ouattara's claim to victory; Soro said that he considered Ouattara the rightful President and offered his resignation to Gbagbo on 4 December.
Gbagbo was sworn in for another five-year term on 4 December, defiantly declaring: "I will continue to work with all the countries of the world, but I will never give up our sovereignty." Sporadic violence and gunfire were reported in various parts of the country, including Abidjan. Gbagbo appointed a new Prime Minister, Gilbert Aké, on 5 December; Aké, an economist and university president, was already regarded as close to Gbagbo.
Ouattara himself was sworn in separately shortly after, saying that "Ivory Coast is now in good hands". Ouattara then re-appointed Soro as his prime minister.
Reactions
Domestic
There had been rallies from pro-Gbagbo and pro-Ouattara sides. Simone Gbagbo, wife of Laurent Gbagbo, gave a speech in the pro-Gbagbo rally on 15 January 2011. Ivorian forces have fired live bullets to disperse protesters. In Abobo, an Abidjan suburb and a stronghold of Ouattara's supporters, there were many violent clashes between security forces and civilians.
Aya Virginie Toure organized over 40,000 women in peaceful protests that were violently repressed. In an impassioned interview on BBC News, Toure compared the ongoing Second Ivorian Civil War to the 2011 Libyan civil war and asked for support from the international community. She called for military intervention to remove Laurent Gbagbo from power the same way Charles Taylor was removed in the Second Liberian Civil War.
United Nations
On 18 December, a United Nations spokesperson said in response to a Gbagbo demand that foreign armed troops leave the country that the UN did not consider Gbagbo to be the president, and that peacekeepers would continue to support and protect both Alassane Ouattara and Ivorian citizens.
On 23 December 2010, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution that "strongly condemned human rights violations that had taken place in Côte d'Ivoire...that occurred in different parts of Côte d'Ivoire in relation to the conclusion of the 2010 presidential election." The resolution was criticized by Amnesty International as having insufficiently addressed the situation.
International
Angola and Lebanon were the only countries to send their ambassadors to Gbagbo's swearing-in. The African Union—which, like the United Nations, formally recognised Ouattara as the duly elected President—warned that the conflicting results and subsequent political crisis could result in "incalculable consequences", and sent former President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki to mediate the issue. The US, UN, EU, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and former colonial power France affirmed their support to Ouattara.
On 5 December, former South African President Thabo Mbeki held separate talks with Gbagbo and Ouattara, acting as a mediator. The African Union had appointed Mbeki to lead an emergency mission to Côte d'Ivoire "to facilitate the rapid and peaceful conclusion of the electoral process and the efforts to find a way out of the crisis." However, he left the next day without a deal.
Gabonese opposition leader André Mba Obame cited the events in Ivory Coast and the international recognition of Ouattara as Ivorian President as inspiration for declaring himself winner of the controversial 2009 Gabonese presidential election, sparking an ongoing political crisis in Gabon.
On 28 December, presidents Yayi Boni of Benin, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone and Pedro Pires of Cape Verde arrived in the country on behalf of ECOWAS, to convince Gbagbo to resign and go into exile for the sake of his country, while declaring it was Gbagbo's last chance before the deployment of military force against him.
On 20 December, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told a news briefing that it was "time for [Gbagbo] to go" and that "We stand ready to impose targeted sanctions, individually and in concert with our partners around the world, on President Gbagbo, on his immediate family, on those who are associated with him and those who continue to cling to power illegitimately." On 21 December, the United States Department of State announced that it had imposed travel sanctions against Gbagbo and 30 allies. William Fitzgerald, the deputy assistant secretary for African affairs, said that trade sanctions may be imposed against individuals. On 22 December, State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said that Ouattara's victory was irrefutable and reiterated U.S. demands that Gbagbo step down.
Threats, violence and human rights violations
Between December 2010 and March 2011, there was a series of sporadic outbreaks of violence between Gbagbo's militias and security forces on the one hand and Ouattara's supporters on the other, primarily in the city of Abidjan, where both sides had large numbers of supporters. On 16 December 2010, clashes between opposition supporters and security forces in Abidjan and Yamoussoukro left 44 people dead. It was alleged that a mass grave of opposition supporters had been dug in a pro-Gbagbo neighborhood in Abidjan, but security forces prevented UN investigators from going to the site to check the allegations. Another mass grave was reported to exist in the village of N'Dotre, guarded by government militias.
Clashes between rival ethnic groups seen as being pro-Gbagbo and pro-Ouattara killed 33 people in the central Ivorian city of Duékoué between 3 and 6 January 2011. 11 more people were killed on 11–12 January when fighting broke out in Abidjan between security forces and Ouattara supporters, some of whom were using automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, after the police attempted to conduct a raid in a pro-Ouattara district of Abidjan. The same area was the scene of further clashes on 21–22 February when police again attempted to raid it. 12 opposition supporters were killed when security forces fired machine guns and launched rocket-propelled grenades in the neighbourhood; the next day, opposition fighters ambushed government gendarmes (paramilitary police) and killed 10–15 of them.
Gbagbo's supporters carried out a number of attacks in March, attacking foreign businesses and UN offices in Abidjan on 1 March and killing at least six people attending a pro-Ouattara rally in the city. The northern suburb of Abobo was attacked by Gbagbo's forces on 13 March in a bid to drive out pro-Ouattara supporters, and mobs were also reported to be roaming the city looking for their opponents and attacking or killing them. The violence resulted in 10 confirmed deaths and scores more wounded. Abobo came under heavy attack on 17 March, killing 30 people, when shells were fired into a crowded market from a nearby military barracks. It was unclear whether Gbagbo or Ouattara supporters were responsible, though Abobo is generally pro-Ouattara. On 18 March, the UN issued a statement saying that the shelling was "an act, perpetrated against civilians, [that] could constitute a crime against humanity." Another 52 people were killed in continuing violence in Abidjan between 21 and 26 March.
Opposition figure Guillaume Soro charged that Gbagbo's security forces and Liberian mercenaries had waged a campaign of terror, and that death squads had been responsible for 200 deaths, 1,000 people wounded from gunfire, 40 disappearances and 732 arrests. He told The Guardian that "women have been beaten, stripped, assaulted and raped. When will the international community realise that a murderous insanity has begun in Ivory Coast?" Amnesty International said it had received increasing reports of atrocities in the country. By March 2011, an estimated 450,000+ Ivorians had left the country, of which 370,000 were from the capital city of Abidjan.
On 10 March 2011, it was announced that Gbagbo had banned all French and UN aircraft from Ivorian airspace, with exceptions only if the transport ministry approved. The ban was not challenged by the UN, which continued to fly helicopters despite the order; allies of Ouattara said Gbagbo had no legal authority with which to enforce the ban.
Approximately 1,800 people, including children and civil servants, had taken refuge in Abidjan's Saint Paul's Cathedral since the beginning of the crisis.
Both pro-Ouattara and pro-Gbagbo forces were accused of having participated in the 28–29 March Duékoué massacre, where hundreds of civilians were killed. When asked by U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-moon, Ouattara denied the accusation against his forces, but agreed to conduct an investigation.
Peaceful protests
Numerous peaceful protests of nonviolent resistance have been organized in Ivory Coast and internationally in support of a peaceful resolution to the ongoing crisis.