YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast
Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo on Sunday launched a new political party he hopes will return him to the presidency.
Gbagbo, with a
decade-long exile behind him, this weekend oversaw his new African People's
Party's congress as he seeks to 'reunite the left' and use the occasion as a
springboard to the 2025 presidential election.
'We will resume our
journey together,' Gbagbo told delegates in his first speech before a big
audience since his return to Ivory coast in mid-June.
'I will be in
politics until I die!' he added, to a standing ovation.
Gbagbo was, as
expected, elected leader of the new party during the congress.
'Look at the world
and see which are the powerful ones, they are the big countries of size, China,
the United States, Russia, Canada,' he told his audience.
'As long as we are in
micro-states we are nothing. African States unite!' he added, referring to one
of the major congress themes -- African sovereignty in the face of the
influence of Western powers.
Political
representatives from a dozen African countries attended this weekend's
congress.
The 76-year-old,
whose 2000-2011 rule was marked by turbulence and division in the world's
biggest cocoa producer, has been highly visible since returning.
He was removed from
office in April 2011 after a short civil war that claimed 3,000 lives, sparked
by his refusal to accept electoral defeat by the current president, Alassane
Ouattara.
Gbagbo was then flown
to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face charges of crimes
against humanity resulting from the conflict, but was eventually acquitted.
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