Ivory Coast President, Alassane Ouattara has pardoned 51 prisoners who had been jailed for committing violence and crimes during the country’s 2010 post-electoral crisis.
The pardoned offenders include General Brunot Dogbo Ble, who was a top military official under president Laurent Gbagbo, during which a crisis that lasted from November 2010 to April 2011, killed more than 3,000 people and over 150 women were sexually abused.
The west African country was plunged into violence after the incumbent president refused to cede power to Ouattara, whom the electoral body had declared the winner of a disputed run-off poll.
The gesture of pardoning the offenders is part of president Ouattara’s commitment to work resolutely to consolidate peace
