Tag: Abidjan

Europol ‘Most Wanted’ Arrested In Abidjan After 20 Years On Run

BREAKING: 'Multiple Casualties' As Gunman Opens Fire At US Synagogue

 

A Frenchman Jean-Claude Lacote wanted for two decades for murdering a British businessman has been arrested in Abidjan, prosecutors said on Thursday, after years on the run during which he reportedly hosted a reality TV crime programme and staged an audacious prison break.

Lacote, 53, and his wife Hilde Van Acker, 56, were each sentenced to life in their absence for the killing of businessman Marcus Mitchell who was shot twice in the head in Belgium in 1996.

The pair, listed on Europol’s most wanted list, fled Belgium in the aftermath of the murder only to resurface two decades later in the Ivory Coast commercial capital.

“The two were arrested in Abidjan. Mr Lacote on Wednesday night and Mrs Van Acker on Thursday morning,” Brussels prosecutors spokesman Celine D’Have told AFP.

Belgian prosecutors will ask for the couple to be extradited from the Ivory Coast.

After fleeing Europe, initially for Brazil, Lacote landed up in South Africa where he launched a TV career, hosting ten episodes of a reality crime programme Duty Calls, according to a 2016 report in Britain’s Independent daily.

The programme highlighted how the police “dealt with violent criminals and dangerous crime scenes”.

After finding himself in prison awaiting trial on a string of frauds, he also escaped when his then girlfriend Van Acker posed along with others as police officers with fake paperwork, the report added.

AFP

PHOTOS: Tinubu Flies With Buhari To Abidjan

President Muhammadu Buhari today, November 28 departed Abuja to attend the fifth European Union-African Union (EU-AU) Summit in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, on November 28 and 29.

See Photos below…

Buhari Departs Nigeria To Attend EU-AU Summit

President Muhammadu Buhari has departed Abuja to attend the fifth European Union-African Union (EU-AU) Summit in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, on November 28 and 29.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, has earlier released a statement on Monday saying Buhari would participate in working sessions during the summit with the theme: “Investing in the Youth for a Sustainable Development.”

READ ALSO: President Buhari To Attend EU-AU Summit

According to the statement, the president is also expected to meet with a number of African Heads of State and their European Union counterparts on the margins of the summit.

He would also attend the official luncheon to be hosted by the government of Cote d’Ivoire in honour of visiting Heads of State and Government and other delegations.

West African Ministers To Discuss Infrastructure Issues At Energy Summit

west African ministers at energy summitMinisters across West Africa are scheduled to provide perspectives to critical energy, finance and infrastructure issues at the Regional Energy Cooperation Summit 2017, holding in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, later in January.    

In continuation of the Africa Energy Forum held in London in May 2016, West Africa’s head of utilities, regulators and industry operators from Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Liberia and Mali, will showcase investment opportunities and project pipelines in the coming event.

The Abidjan summit will afford all parties in the public and private sector, the opportunity to explore ownership for network assets, and hear directly from governments on the scale of the opportunities within the region’s integration strategy.

Although energy cooperation in West Africa is in progress, not so much has been achieved with the West Africa power poll, with its headquarters in Ghana.

Ivory Coast’s Former First Lady, Simone Gbagbo, Jailed

gbabo_jailIvory Coast’s former first lady, Simone Gbagbo, has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for her role in the violence that followed the 2010 elections.

Gbagbo had been charged with undermining state security.

Her husband, former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, is awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court.

More than 3,000 people died in the violence that followed the presidential poll after the ex-leader refused to accept defeat to Alassane Ouattara.

She and her husband were arrested in 2011 after troops stormed a bunker where the pair had taken refuge in the main city, Abidjan.

And it was in the same city where Gbagbo – once called the “Iron Lady” – faced trial. She was also accused of disturbing public order and organising armed gangs.

The court unanimously sentenced her to 20 years, twice as long as the prosecutors had asked for.

Her daughter, Marie Antoinette Singleton, told the BBC the sentence was unfair and a sign of “political justice”.

“Why would you want to double it? It’s not about justice, it’s about getting rid of political adversaries.”

“If we say that something wrong happened, it happened on both sides. Nobody looked into bringing all responsible parties to trial,” she said.

Simone Gbagbo’s lawyer said they would appeal.

Laurent Gbagbo, is facing four charges at the ICC in The Hague, including murder, rape and persecution.

The ICC had issued an arrest warrant for Simone Gbagbo too, but this was dismissed by the Ivorian government.

Ivory Coast Declares Three Days Of Mourning

Three days of mourning have been declared in Ivory Coast following a New Year’s Eve stampede that killed at least 61 people in Abidjan.

Hundreds of people leaving a fireworks event at a stadium in the Plateau district were jammed into a tiny street in the early hours of Tuesday: many were crushed; others suffocated.

President Alassane Ouattara described the deaths as a “National Tragedy”.

There are reports that a group of youths brandishing knives were snatching people’s mobile phones, other reports say security forces acted ineptly as they tried to control the many thousands walking through the City Centre – triggering the stampede.