Guillaume Soro, the former prime minister of Ivory Coast, announced on Sunday that he was leaving his self-imposed exile that started in 2019 after receiving a life sentence for damaging national security.
President Alassane Ouattara’s right-hand man, Soro, and the head of state had a falling out in 2019, with the latter accusing Soro of inciting a “civilian and military insurrection”.
Following his exile, Soro was given a life sentence in absentia by an Ivorian court in 2021.
“I am announcing here and now that I am putting an end to my exile because it’s hard for me to live far from my ancestral and native land of Africa,” Soro said in an address published on social media.
“I refuse to be a fugitive. I am guilty of no crime,” he added, saying he wanted to “contribute to the reconciliation” of the country’s population, without specifying a return date.
Soro said that on November 3, an attempt was made to arrest him at the Istanbul airport with the intention of extraditing him to the Ivory Coast.
In the early 2000s, Soro led an insurrection that took over the northern portion of Ivory Coast.
He gave Ouattara vital military backing during his battle with Laurent Gbagbo, the president at the time, who was overthrown in 2011 following a bloody post-election dispute.
After that, Soro was appointed speaker of the National Assembly in 2012 and went on to become Ouattara’s first prime minister.
In April 2020, Soro received a 20-year prison term for misusing public funds.
