After months of silence, Charles Blé Goudé has finally spoken out about the deterioration of his relationship with former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo.
Invited this Thursday on the show L’Appart Politique by the pan-African media outlet Muntu, the COJEP president lifted the veil on the tensions between him and his former ally, going so far as to point to a third party as responsible for their fallout. “This whole situation is due to one single person, who has nothing to do with our struggle, but who got involved and ruined everything for their own glory,” he said, without naming the individual in question.
He also revealed that he had received threats through an emissary of this person: “I was told that this person wanted me dead,” he confided, while explaining that he preferred to remain silent so as not to harm Gbagbo.
Since returning to Ivory Coast, Charles Blé Goudé has never been received by the former president, despite several requests. This situation has fueled rumors of tensions between the two men, once comrades-in-arms and co-defendants before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
On April 6, during a rally in Agboville, Laurent Gbagbo reignited the controversy by mocking Blé Goudé:
“There’s someone who goes around saying he used to cook for me. But he doesn’t tell you where he got the money! It was Nady [Bamba] who gave him the money so we could all eat.”
Asked about that remark, Blé Goudé responded calmly:
“If I said it didn’t hurt, I would be lying. (…) But as a son, I do not have the right to answer him.”
He also took the opportunity to deny accusations that he had collaborated with Alassane Ouattara’s regime to bring Laurent Gbagbo down at the ICC. Upon arriving in The Hague, he says, he was kept away from Gbagbo and pressured by Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to speak without his lawyer being present. “I asked them what my status was. Am I a prosecution witness or a co-defendant? The prosecutor told me I was a defendant. So I said: in that case, we will only speak in the courtroom.”
With this media appearance, Charles Blé Goudé may be entering a new phase in how he manages his political relationships, in a context where fractures within the former patriotic movement continue to fuel public debate.