Côte d’Ivoire’s opposition intensified its campaign for civil liberties on November 29, 2025, with the launch of the Initiative for the Liberation of Prisoners of Opinion (ILPO) by the Party of African Peoples – Côte d’Ivoire (PPA-CI), led by former President Laurent Gbagbo.
The platform seeks the “immediate and unconditional release” of party activists detained after a banned opposition march in October. The October 11 protest, organized against government decisions, was dispersed by security forces, leading to hundreds of arrests. While some detainees have since been freed, several PPA-CI members were prosecuted and convicted on charges of disrupting public order — verdicts the opposition denounces as politically motivated.
“The detention of citizens for their political stance is a grave attack on democratic principles,” a PPA-CI representative declared at the ILPO’s inaugural event.
The ILPO is structured as an ad-hoc commission to coordinate advocacy efforts across legal, political, and civil society channels. Its mission is to mobilize pressure on state institutions and spotlight what the party describes as violations of democratic rights.
The initiative underscores the PPA-CI’s strategy to place political detention at the center of its opposition agenda ahead of upcoming elections. It also renews scrutiny of Côte d’Ivoire’s judiciary and broader political climate. Government officials, however, maintain that the arrests were linked to criminal acts and insist the judiciary operates independently.
Gbagbo, acquitted of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in 2019 and returned to Côte d’Ivoire in 2021, has positioned his party as a leading voice for democratic accountability. The ILPO marks the latest structural effort by the PPA-CI to challenge the ruling party and defend what it calls the political rights of its supporters.
