For nearly two decades, Cote d'Ivoire was stuck in a cycle of unprecedented violence that culminated with the armed rebellion of September 19, 2002 and the post-election crisis, which lasted from November 2010 to May 2011.
Faced with a disastrous record of at least 3,000 dead and several thousands of people injured, missing and raped, the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation in 2011.Four years later, opinions on the ICC actions are still divided as the socio-political tensions are still vivid and deep-seated. In fact, Cote d'Ivoire, which became party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on February 15, 2013, is still characterized by the recurrence of violence, electoral issues, and poorly rendered justice.
Several expectations seem to have been disappointed in areas where the need for justice was seen as imperative. At times, the ICC appears to be a Court promoting the concept of victors' justice, or as a Court which is not sufficiently close to the people it is supposed to protect. All this occurs as the African Union is maintaining the ICC has anti-African sentiments. But in Cote d’Ivoire, for the first time in the history of the Court, a former African head of state is prosecuted just after his mandate ended.
