Aides to ousted leader return home after five-year exile

Four senior aides to former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo have returned home from exile in Ghana more than five years after his ouster in a war over a disputed election, a step the leader of his party said would aid reconciliation. The four men, who included former Defence Minister Kadet Bertin, were persuaded to […]

Four senior aides to former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo have returned home from exile in Ghana more than five years after his ouster in a war over a disputed election, a step the leader of his party said would aid reconciliation.
The four men, who included former Defence Minister Kadet Bertin, were persuaded to return following negotiations with the government and guarantees that they would not face charges related to the civil war.
Accompanying Bertin were Kacou Brou, leader of Gbagbo’s Fesci youth militia, Yaon Franck, a presidential bodyguard, and Watchard Kedjebo, another militia leader.
Five years after the conflict that killed 3,000 people, the country, the world’s leading cocoa producer, has been reborn as one of Africa’s economic stars, held up by many as a model of post-conflict reconstruction.