Abidjan: Guillaume Soro announces an end to his exile.

It is in a short five-minute video posted on his X account (formerly Twitter) that Guillaume Soro announces his intention to return to Côte d'Ivoire. 'I announce here and now that I am putting an end to my exile because it is painful for me to live away from my ancestral and native land in Africa,' he declares, adding that he was 'attempted to be arrested' at Istanbul airport on November 3 in an attempt to extradite him to his country.

He also detailed having been in France, Belgium, Dubai, and 'to the far reaches of the Asian continent' in recent years. 'I will not go further into my exile; I refuse to be a fugitive. I am guilty of no wrongdoing,' he continues, stating that he wants to 'contribute to the reconciliation of the sons and daughters' of Côte d'Ivoire.

Guillaume Soro did not specify a date for a potential return to Côte d'Ivoire. Already in exile, Guillaume Soro was sentenced in Côte d'Ivoire in June 2021 to life imprisonment for "endangering state security," accused of plotting a "civil and military insurrection" to overthrow the regime of the current president, Alassane Ouattara, in 2019. In April 2020, he had already been sentenced to twenty years in prison for complicity in embezzlement of public funds.
Rupture with Ouattara in 2019

As the leader of the rebellion that controlled the northern half of Côte d'Ivoire in the 2000s, Guillaume Soro had militarily assisted Alassane Ouattara in coming to power during the post-electoral crisis of 2010-2011 against the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to admit defeat.

Guillaume Soro became the first prime minister under Alassane Ouattara, then president of the National Assembly in 2012, before a rupture in early 2019, reportedly due to his presidential ambitions. In May, he asserted that no "reason" prevented him from being a candidate in the next presidential election in 2025.