Interview with Richard Kodjo, Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire, November 2012. Since April 2011 there is a severely deteriorating political and security situation throughout the country, concentrated in the western part of Côte d'Ivoire where there is a full-out genocide, targeting the Wê ethnic group. After contested elections in December 2010 President Laurent Gbagbo called for a ballot recount. Instead of this peaceful option to overcome the post-electora crisis, a French-UN coup d'etat followed, according to anthropologist and political scientist Michel Galy, and Alassane Ouattara was subsequently sworn is as the new President, breaching the Ivorian constitution. Daily reports of summary and extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearances, extortion, looting of public and privately-owned property of civilians have been recorded by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and local civil-rights watchdogs. A system of predation and racketeering, essentially carried out by the Republican Forces of Côte d'Ivoire, (FRCI), the national army, is weakening the official structures of the state security. The country's police is unarmed to protect the population. A recent Amnesty report denouces a « situation of lawlessness » even in Abidjan, the country's capital. The FPI said in an open statement that, despite embracing non-violence, it has been unable to exercise its function as an opposition party. On August 18, the headquarters of the FPI was looted and Dr. Alphonse Douati, Deputy Secretary General of the FPI, was arrested and imprisoned by the FRCI, the national army. A week later, on August 26, the FPI Secretary-General's Spokesman Laurent Akoun suffered the same fate. They join the more than 200 political prisoners in illegal detention and facing torture today. There are many places of unrecognized detention. Some have been held for many months and denied contact with their families and access to lawyers, according to Amnesty International. Independant sources say the number of political detainees is as high as 1,000. The party is severely put to the test with 23 ministers and six former ambassadors in exile, 4 Ministers in prison, and two others dead, FPI leaders protest.

• published: 21 Mar 2014