Guillaume Soro

Guillaume Soro (2008)

Guillaume Kigbafori Soro (born May 8, 1972 in Ferkessédougou , Ivory Coast ) was Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of his country.

His nicknames are " le Che " because he occupies "left" positions, and " le général ", as his followers call him. His war name is " Docteur Koumba ".

Life

youth

Soro comes from the north of the country and is Catholic .

From 1995 to 1998 he led the Ivorian student organization FESCI ( Fédération estudiantine et scolaire de Côte d'Ivoire - School and Student Association of the Ivory Coast). Soro was regularly jailed after demonstrations . In 1998 Henriette Diabaté took over from him. Soro then went to England and later to France .

1999 coup

After the coup on Christmas Eve 1999, Soro worked alongside the new head of state Robert Guéï , a former general. Soro turned away from Guéï when he excluded the politician Alassane Ouattara from the presidential elections in 2000 because of “doubtful citizenship”. Soro now allied with Ouattara.

Soro was general secretary of the so-called Forces Nouvelles - the new armed forces (ex-rebels). He was also secretary of the Mouvement patriote de Côte d'Ivoire (MPCI). Since the 2002 uprising, his troops have controlled the north of the country - a good 60 percent of the Ivory Coast.

In a "National Government of Reconciliation" Soro participated as Minister of Communications from February 2003 to May 2004 and again from August 2004 to December 2005. On December 28, 2005 he became Minister for Reconstruction and Inclusion in the government under Charles Konan Banny .

Assassination attempt in 2007

On June 29, 2007 Soro flew with an unknown number of members of his delegation and 20 journalists in the Ivorian government plane, a Fokker 100 (TU-VAA) , from Abidjan airport to Bouaké . After landing, the machine was hit while rolling at least three anti-tank missiles . One of them broke through the fuselage. Four people were killed and five others seriously injured. Soro survived the assassination attempt.

2010 crisis

→ Main article : Government crisis in Ivory Coast 2010/2011

Since March 29, 2007 he was Prime Minister of the Ivory Coast. After the controversial presidential election in autumn 2010 , Soro submitted his resignation on December 4, 2010. Thereupon he was charged again with the formation of a government by Alassane Ouattara , who was declared the election winner by the election commission. A little later, the previous President Laurent Gbagbo , who was awarded the election victory by the Constitutional Council, appointed Gilbert Marie N'gbo Aké as Prime Minister, giving the country two heads of government.

On April 11, 2011, after Gbagbo's arrest, the Soro III government began work under his leadership .

On March 8, 2012, Soro resigned and was elected President of the National Assembly. His successor as Prime Minister was Justice Minister Jeannot Ahoussou-Kouadio .

Legal proceedings 2019-2020

In November 2019, Soro was charged with corruption . In another trial he is accused of encouraging rebels to rebel. He fled into exile in December 2019 . In April 2020, he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in the corruption process and will therefore not be able to run for the presidential election in October .

Web links

• Interview with Soro in French
• Interview with the BBC in English

Individual evidence

1. ^ Accident report Fokker 100, F-GMPG Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 3, 2019.
2. ^ Spiegel Online : Gbagbo sworn in as President of Ivory Coast , December 4, 2010.
3. ↑ Stern: Laurent Gbagbo appoints head of government for Ivory Coast ( memento of December 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) , December 6, 2010.
4. ↑ Jeune Afrique : Jeannot Ahoussou Kouadio nommé Premier ministre , March 13, 2012 (French)
5. ↑ Former Ivorian prime minister Guillaume Soro jailed for 20 years for corruption. africanews.com of April 29, 2020 (English). accessed on April 29, 2020