The former Ivorian minister, Charles Blé Goudé, who returned to Abidjan on Saturday, November 26, after a ten-year prison stay at the International Criminal Court (ICC), let it be understood on Tuesday that he is starting “to disposition” of his country.
“I am at the disposal of the Republic. I am at the disposal of my country”, he indicated, at the end of an audience in Abidjan granted to him by the Minister of Reconciliation and National Cohesion Kouadio Konan Bertin.
Before that, the President of the Pan-African Congress for Justice and Equality of Peoples (COJEP) reiterated his gratitude to the Head of State Alassane Ouattara, stating that “I have therefore come this morning to tell you all my gratitude. But beyond that, all my gratitude to the President of the Republic. All my gratitude to the Republic itself.
Blé Goudé also seems to align himself with the reconciliation process that the authorities had already begun with the opposition. “There is a time to fight and there is a time to talk about peace and reconciliation (…) I have come to add my two cents to the work that you have started so well”, according to his words.
To Kouadio Konan Bertin, a “brother”, a “friend”, the leader of COJEP said, “Mr. minister thank you. Thank you for your humanity, thank you for giving meaning to this sentence that friendship is one at all times, in all places”.
This former minister was acquitted in March 2021 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of crimes against humanity committed during the Ivorian crisis of 2010-2011. He was the co-detainee of the former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, also acquitted.
By OMA Newsletter N° 958 of 30/11/2022
Article published under the direction of Dr. Najib Kettani
The OMA, NGO with an Intercontinental vocation
For the development of cultural exchanges
Valuing human potential
The promotion and consolidation of Africa’s development, and
Inter-African integration
