Crisis Chronology | Ivory Coast

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IVORY COAST

11/11/2022

Government says it will not replace its soldiers in the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali.

04/19/2022

Ouattara appoints Central Bank governor Tiémoko Meyliet Koné to be vice-president. Achi is reappointed prime minister.

04/13/2022

Prime Minister Patrick Achi and his cabinet submit their resignations. President Outtara says he will name a new government with a reduced cabinet next week. The country is mobilizing 14,000 troops for the Easter weekend, out of concern that there will be attacks by jihadists.

10/16/2021

Gbagbo launches new political party, the African People's Party's Congress (PPA-CI), which elects him its president.

09/26/2021

Former first lady Simone Gbagbo attends a rally in support of her candidacy for president held by the Mouvement des générations capables. She is likely to form her own political party. Gbagbo has filed for divorce from her and is expected to form his own political party.

09/02/2021

Italian oil company discovers large new oil field. The Ivory Coast has 51 oil fields, but only four of them are currently in production.

06/28/2021

Laurent Gbagbo returns after being acquitted by the ICC of deaths in 2010 elections.

06/23/2021

Former prime minister Guillaume Soro sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia.

05/19/2021

Former prime minister Guillaume Soro and 19 others are put on trial for “plotting against state security.” Soro is in exile. His lawyers have refused to participate in what they call a sham.

03/31/2021

International Criminal Court upholds the acquittals of Gbagbo and his former minister on charges of inciting post-election violence in 2010.

03/10/2021

Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko dies of cancer. Ouattara names Patrick Achi, his chief of staff, to be prime minister.

03/07/2021

PDCI claims that it has won a majority in the parliament with 128 of 255 seats, but also claims that there were irregularities in the voting.

02/25/2021

Gbagbo and Bedie form alliance to win a majority in parliament in voting 3/6.

11/09/2020

Outtara’s election confirmed. He invites the opposition for talks. Dozens have been killed in protests before and after the election.

11/03/2020

Government surrounds homes of opposition leaders, saying they are plotting against the state. The leaders had said they would meet to set up a council of national transition led by Henri Konan Bedie.

11/02/2020

Opposition protests are broken up by security forces.

10/31/2020

Ouattara re-elected

Ouattara re-elected in a landslide. The opposition rejects the results. Opposition leaders boycotted the vote.

10/18/2020

House of opposition candidate Pascal Affi N’Guessan burned down as ethnic protests rise. The Agni people were fighting Dioula from the north.

10/15/2020

Opposition calls on its supporters to not take part in campaign and electoral events, possibly signaling a boycott of 10/31 elections. Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko threatens crackdown.

10/11/2020

United opposition rallies against Ouattaro’s candidacy.

09/15/2020

Constitutional Court allows Outtara to run for president again. Soro and Gbagbo are barred from running. Former President Bedie, Gbagbo's former Prime Minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan, and Kouadio Konan Bertin, a dissident from Bedie's PDCI party are also allowed to run. Some protests erupt.

08/31/2020

Both Guillaume Soro, rebel leader, and Laurent Gbagbo file papers as candidates for president. Soro is in self-imposed exile in France, and Gbagbo is in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

08/27/2020

Opposition leaders, Pascal Affi N'guessan of Ivorian Popular Front, and Henri Konan Bédié of the opposition Democratic Party of Cote d’Ivoire had submitted their candidacy last Thursday.

08/14/2020

Violent protests against Ouattara’s decision to run for president again. Many believe that a third term for him would violate the constitution, but the RHDP disputes that based on a technicality.

08/02/2020

Pascal Affi N'Guessan, an associate of Gbagbo, announces he will run for president. He has support in the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI). With Gbagbo on trial by the International Criminal Court, the FPI has split into two factions: the "renovators," who support N'Guessan, and the "GOR" ("Gbagbo or nothing") group, who have boycotted the polls, but still consider themselves part of the party.

07/29/2020

Ouattara is nominated by the RHDP. Though he has said that he doesn’t want to run again, he is considering doing so after the death of Gon Couliby.

07/26/2020

Former president Henri Konan Bedie is nominated for president by the PDCI.

07/13/2020

Vice President Daniel Kablan Duncan resigns.

07/08/2020

Coulibaly dies after returning from heart surgery in France.

06/22/2020

Former president Konan Bedié announces he will run for president as candidate of the Democratic Party in election 10/20. His opponent is Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly of the Rally of the Republicans (RDR).

04/29/2020

Former PM Guillaume Soro given twenty-year prison sentence in absentia for corruption.

03/13/2020

Ouattara names Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly to his party’s candidate for president in election expected in 10/20.

03/13/2020

Ivory Coast confirms its first case of COVID-19.

03/12/2020

Ivory Coast confirms its first COVID-19 case.

03/06/2020

Ouattara announces that he will not seek re-election.

12/28/2019

Government announces that on 12/23 it issued an arrest warrant for Guillaume Soro on charges of participating in a coup plot. Soro, a candidate for president in the 10/20 election, calls off a return to Ivory Coast. Fifteen others have already been arrested.

09/14/2019

Opposition parties the PDCI-RDA (Democratic Party and African Democratic Rally) coalition of Henry Konan Bedié and the FPI (Ivory Coast Popular Front) of former president Laurent Gbagbo agreed to work together in next election in 2020 and to demand reform of the electoral commission.

03/01/2019

Students strike demanding classes resume at universities. Teachers there have been on strike for six weeks demanding pay increases and improved working conditions.

01/15/2019

International Criminal Court clears Laurent Gbagbo of war crimes and orders his release.

10/17/2018

Ouattara’s RHDP wins 92 municipal elections. Independent candidates won 56 and the Democratic Party of the Ivory Coast 50.

09/12/2018

Aboudramane Sangaré, self-described head of Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), calls for local elections scheduled for 10/13 to be delayed indefinitely and for the Independent Electoral Commission to be reformed. The FPI is split between the wing loyal to party president Laurent Gbagbo and led by Sangaré, a relative of Gbagbo, and a more moderate wing led by Pascal Affi N’Guessan.

08/19/2018

At its first meeting, the National Council of the Union of Soroists calls on Guillaume Soro to be its candidate for president. Soro has said he would speak with Outtara before deciding about running and wants to bring Ivory Coast together after divisive 2010 vote.

08/09/2018

Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI), led by Henri Bédié says it will leave governing coalition and nominate its own slate for local elections on 10/13/18 and the presidential election in 2020.

07/24/2018

PDCI party, led by former president Henri Konan Bedie, says it will not take part in the new government, having expelled members who were named to the new cabinet.

07/17/2018

Outtara announces new “unified party” named the Rally for Democracy and Peace (Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour le democracie et la paix, RHDP).

07/11/2018

Outtara names new cabinet with small but important changes. One post goes to an ally of national assembly speaker Guillaume Soro, a former rebel leader who still has ties to the military. PM Amadou Gon Coulibaly remains finance minister. Some fear that the political tensions will revive the ethnic divide that resulted in a rebel controlled south and a government controlled north after the civil war following and election in 2010.

07/04/2018

Government dissolved

Outtara dissolves government due to a rift between his RDR party and the PDCI of former president Henri Konan Bedie. The PDCI demanded to choose the presidential candidate for the 2020 election.