Credit:  africa-me.com /    Former rebel leader Guillaume Soro is a candidate in next year’s Presidential Election in  West Africa nation Côte d’Ivoire.

By Gary Raynaldo  /    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

Guillaume Soro, former head of the rebellion in West African nation Ivory Coast and presidential candidate in 2020, vowed  to” organize the resistance to President Alassane Ouattara”  from Europe. Soro is in a sort of political exile in Paris after the Republic of Ivory Coast issued an arrest warrant last week  for  Soro for  involvement in an alleged coup plot.  France 24 reported: 

 “It is only a question of political resistance,” Soro told French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche following accusations he was preparing an imminent “civilian military insurrection” to seize power. “I am and remain a presidential candidate… I will organise the resistance just as de Gaulle did from London,” he said, referring to the French wartime resistance leader.

Opposition Says Ivory Coast Arrest Warrant Is Politically Motivated To Silence Dissent

“These actions are attempts to silence all criticism by the opposition of the government when we should be discussing how the 2020 election is being organized,” politician GnonzieOuattara from the Coalition for Reconciliation, Democracy, and Peace (CRDP), an alliance of 21 opposition parties including Soro’s, told a news conference, as reported by Reuters.  “Guillaume Soro is not guilty of anything,” he said.  Soro  denounced the investigation as politically motivated.

The former rebel leader, turned politician was apparently in Paris last week aboard a flight bound for Abidjan when he got the news.  Soro, 47,  was in Europe the past six months, and met with Ivory Coast activist Charles Blé Goudé at The Hague last month.  Blé Goudé  was acquitted of War Crimes Charges at the  International Criminal Court (ICC) last January.  The ICC also dropped war crimes charges Against Ex-Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo. 

Soro rose to international prominence as the leader of the Forces Nouvelles rebellion against then President Gbagbo during Côte d’Ivoire’s civil war.  After the 2007 peace deal, Soro served as prime minister under the successive governments of Gbagbo and Ouattara between 2007 and 2012.  Soro served for several years as speaker of the National Assembly but apparently had a falling out with President Ouattara.