A cell phone video obtained from Human Rights Watch and shared with CNN by HRW showed protesters waving flags in front of security forces in riot gear in Elipo. When the video was over, gunfire was reported inside the crowd.
A second video taken later shows two men lying motionless on the road. Others can be seen taking photos of bodies and pools of blood running down the sidewalk.
Witnesses told HRW that three people had been killed by Ivory security forces who opened fire. The government has promised to investigate, but Otara, who sat down for an exclusive interview with CNN, has already made up his mind.
“This is a lie,” he says. “I had given strict instructions to the security forces not to use guns and no one was shot during the security forces.” Although no arrests have been made, the president says a protester with a small handgun was charged.
Jim Wormington, an HRW researcher who wrote a detailed report on election-related violence in Ivory Coast, says the president’s rejection of the allegation is “clearly premature.” He says he welcomes the investigation to CNN, but makes a note of suspicion, adding: “Ovadara really has no record of holding people accountable for political violence.”
Dangerous gunfire closed bloody two months for one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, enjoying relative peace and stability for nearly a decade.
Officially, 85 people have been killed in violence around the October election. Hundreds more were wounded, while more than 15,000 Ivorians fled the country for fear of returning to civil war, which helped bring Ottara to power.
Although racial and ethnic tensions have eased in recent weeks, international observers are concerned that relative peace will come at the expense of Ivory Coast’s already weak democracy. Since independence from France in 1960, the Ivory has never seen a peaceful democratic transfer of power.
The erosion of democracy
The U.S.-based Carter Center, which sent the panel of election observers, found that there were “serious concerns about civil rights, freedom of expression and the restrictions on the right to vote and the right to choose.” Its initial assessment states that those issues will “lead to the collapse of democracy that can extend beyond the borders of the country.”
Opposing Amara Otara’s decision to run for a third term, the constitution restricts presidents to two. “Unfortunately, this is a decision I have to make,” Ovdara explains to CNN in his bit from Abidjan in Abidjan. He says he has no plans to run, but when his chosen heir dies unexpectedly, he has no choice. “This is a decision I am glad I made today because the country would have been in turmoil if I had not been a candidate.”
Asked if he understands why so many Ivorians and protesters are upset by the move, he says there is no American-educated president.
“No, they know they can not win and they think they want to seize power without an election. They are not democrats, it’s so easy,” he said.
“I wasn’t trying to be George Washington,” he said. “I do not plan to make many rules, but being in the presidency at this particular moment is important to my country and to me, and there are all the challenges that my country has to face,” he says.
When the Ivory Coast Supreme Court clarified the way to contest the Ottara re-election, an Election Commission prevented forty people from challenging. The president says it is better to allow only candidates with strong support and legitimate party support – citing other African countries and restricting the number of candidates.
“I tell you, democracy does not mean that anyone should come and run,” he says.
But a senior Ivorian justice, who spoke to CNN about the anonymity, echoed a series of complaints from the opposition that Overa, along with his friends, had layered the Independent Electoral Commission – just like the last president.
“The commission is an authority that only responds to the government,” the source said. “They have no freedom, they care about power.”
Yacouba Tambia, leader of the Ivorian human rights movement, tells CNN that his country’s justice system is not independent.
“On paper, if they are used effectively, there are laws that say we are in a democratic country; unfortunately in practice neither the party in power nor the opposition gives us the impression that we are in a democratic country,” he says.
Opposition leaders were arrested
Those presidential candidates include former President Laurent Kabago, who was recently acquitted of war crimes and former rebel leader Guillaume Zoro, who once helped oust Kabago from office. Until recently, Zoro served as Otara’s prime minister, but is now in exile.
Those allowed to hold the vote abstained and called on their supporters to protest rather than vote. Later, they formed a parallel government to organize a new election. One presidential candidate was arrested and the other was placed under house arrest. According to Amnesty International, lawyers have no access.
Otara, however, denies it and defends the actions of his government.
“Let’s assume that Donald Trump decided to form a government because Biden won the election. He will be sent to prison immediately. This is what we do in C டிte d’Ivoire,” he says.
From Paris, Zorro called on Facebook to call on the military to “look at you in the mirror of your soul and conscience and act to prevent murder.” It was a statement that branded Soro “a little crazy” and described Ovdara as a call for conspiracy.
Zorro never called for CNN violence or a military coup – saying government officials should join a parallel government.
“My goal, my goal and my will, is to appeal to the military to stop the massacre and to avoid a civil war. [pro-government] Fighters. Yes, that’s the meaning of my speech, “he says.” I did not tell them to make a conspiracy. “
Whatever its purpose, the call for action was not well received in France.
“I do not want his presence in his territory until he does so,” Macron told the Pan-African news magazine Jean Africa in an interview. “To the extent that we welcome freedom fighters and those threatened in their homes, we do not intend to protect activists who destabilize a country.”
Zorro says he left France of his own free will in November and is now in Brussels. He says he hopes to be the next president. “This is my turn, this is the rule,” he told CNN via video call.
He said he had already extended an olive branch to Kabago, issued him a passport and was ready to pardon CNN for a separate charge.
“I do not understand why the French authorities can allow Mr. Ottara to violate the Constitution. Can you imagine the United States if former President Obama decides to run for a third term in your country?” Zoro asks. “We feel abandoned by the international community …. they are only interested in business. There is no democracy, or democracy, this is not an issue.”
According to Kobe-based regional analyst Kobe Annan, democracy is being sacrificed in the name of stability.
“With the relatively recent event of the Civil War … in the country and before the election, I think it’s better to accept what and what people know because there is a real possibility of a return to it,” he says.
In other words, the world will tolerate democratic erosion as long as there is peace in Ivory Coast.
None of Ivory Coast’s issues seem to set big alarm bells in the international community, even in France, which still has strong ties with its former colony. Macron has been reluctant to support Overtara’s re-election and has pushed him to make peace with his rivals.
Margot Haddad, Thomas-Diego Badia, Li-Lian Ahlgak Hoo and Sebastian Shukla contributed to the story.