Ibrahim Coulibaly
Encyclopedia
Ibrahim Coulibaly was a military and rebel leader in Côte d'Ivoire
. A Staff Sargent in the Armed Forces of Côte d'Ivoire, Coulibaly had served since at least the early 1990s. As Côte d'Ivoire slid into communal conflict, Coulibaly joined the 1999 coup led by Robert Guéï. A second coup, following 2000 elections that made Laurent Gbagbo President, saw Coulibaly in a leadership position, after which he came into conflict with fellow military leader Guillaume Soro
. During the ensuing eight years of division in the country, Coulibaly came into conflict with both sides, eventually returning to lead an Abidjan based militia supportive of Alassane Ouattara
. Following the end of fighting, Coulibaly was killed in Abidjan by Ouattara's forces during an attempt to disarm his group. Known popularly as "IB", he was 47 years old at the time of his death.
, Côte d'Ivoire. He entered the Armed Forces of Côte d'Ivoire in 1985, rising to the rank of Staff-Sargent. in the early 1990s Coulibaly attracted attention within the military as a soldier and as a Basketball
player, and was promoted to the bodyguard unit of then Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire Alassane Ouattara
. Here became involved in politics and came to meet higher ranking officers who would eventually be involved in the 1999 Ivorian coup d'état
.
and brought brought military leader Robert Guéï
to power. It was Guéï who first appointed Coulibaly to political position, naming him military attache to the Ivorian Ambassador to Canada
. When it became clear Guéï wished to continue in power after planned elections, a September 2000 assassination attempt was reputedly planned by members of the military. Coulibaly, implicated in the plot, fled the country.
President of Côte d'Ivoire. Continued tensions of citizenship and ethnicity, like those that led to the 1999 coup, saw another failed coup attempt in January 2001. Coulibaly was again implicated and fled to Burkina Faso
, where he and other opponents of the Gbagbo government were sheltered by regional rival Blaise Compaore
. In September 2002 Coulibaly returned to the north of Côte d'Ivoire, helping lead a seemingly successful coup against Gbagbo's government.Côte d'Ivoire Coulibaly's faction, one of many on the rebel side, held territory in and around Bouaké before both sides fell into a stalemate that became the First Ivorian Civil War. Various factions were uneasily united in the northern based Forces Nouvelles de Côte d'Ivoire
, led from Bouaké. in In August 2003 he was arrested in Paris
under suspicion of seeking to destabilize the Ivorian government, but he was released on bail in September. In June 2004 fighting broke out between his followers and those of rival rebel commander Guillaume Soro
. In January 2005 Coulibaly expressed support for efforts by the African Union
at mediating the political crisis.
Coulibaly's associates were allegedly responsible for the assassination attempt on Ivorian Prime Minister Guillaume Soro
in June 2007.
On December 30, 2007, the New Forces (former rebels) accused Coulibaly of attempting a coup on the night of December 27–28. It said that he had moved towards the Côte d'Ivoire-Ghana
border to "join his accomplices" on that night; he had previously been staying in Cotonou
, Benin
, but was ordered to leave Benin by that country's government for allegedly working to destabilize Côte d'Ivoire. A clash on that night in Bouake
led to the death of Seydou Traore, who the New Forces said was working for Coulibaly as the "central coordinator of the conspiracy". Those involved in the clash who were captured were said to have identified Coulibaly as the leader of the plot.
, saying that he had never attempted to recruit any mercenaries in France. According to Coulibaly, he was in Belgium
at the time of the interview and would not go to France to participate in the trial. He claimed that the legal proceedings against him were intended to keep him from returning to Côte d'Ivoire to run against Gbagbo in the 2008 presidential election
.
The French court found Coulibaly guilty of "heading or organising a group with mercenary objectives", and sentenced him in absentia to four years in prison on June 4, 2008. Five of his co-defendants were acquitted and the remaining seven were given sentences lighter than Coulibaly's.
2010–2011 Ivorian crisis
In January 2011 Coulibaly appeared as the reputed head of a militia group supportive of Presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara
. Based in the Abidjan
neighborhood of Abobo
, the militia calling itself The Invisible Commandos led a series of surprise raids against forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo
. After the March 2011 offensive
by forces loyal to Ouattara reached the capital and deposed Gbagbo, the Ivorian Armed Forces siding with Ouattara and Guillaume Soro (the Republican Forces of Côte d'Ivoire) began operations to disarm militias on both sides, including Coulibaly. On 27 April 2011, according to an Ivorian defense ministry spokesman, Coulibaly was killed by FRCI forces.
Côte d'Ivoire
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
. A Staff Sargent in the Armed Forces of Côte d'Ivoire, Coulibaly had served since at least the early 1990s. As Côte d'Ivoire slid into communal conflict, Coulibaly joined the 1999 coup led by Robert Guéï. A second coup, following 2000 elections that made Laurent Gbagbo President, saw Coulibaly in a leadership position, after which he came into conflict with fellow military leader Guillaume Soro
Guillaume Soro
Guillaume Kigbafori Soro has served as the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire since 4 April 2007...
. During the ensuing eight years of division in the country, Coulibaly came into conflict with both sides, eventually returning to lead an Abidjan based militia supportive of Alassane Ouattara
Alassane Ouattara
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is an Ivorian politician who has been President of Côte d'Ivoire since 2011. An economist by profession, Ouattara worked for the International Monetary Fund and the Central Bank of West African States , and he was the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire from November 1990 to...
. Following the end of fighting, Coulibaly was killed in Abidjan by Ouattara's forces during an attempt to disarm his group. Known popularly as "IB", he was 47 years old at the time of his death.
Early career
Ibrahim Coulibaly was born in 1964 in BouakéBouaké
Bouaké is the second largest city in Côte d'Ivoire, with a population of 775,300 . It is the main urban settlement of the Bouaké Department with a population exceeding 1.2 million, in the Vallée du Bandama Region...
, Côte d'Ivoire. He entered the Armed Forces of Côte d'Ivoire in 1985, rising to the rank of Staff-Sargent. in the early 1990s Coulibaly attracted attention within the military as a soldier and as a Basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player, and was promoted to the bodyguard unit of then Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire Alassane Ouattara
Alassane Ouattara
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is an Ivorian politician who has been President of Côte d'Ivoire since 2011. An economist by profession, Ouattara worked for the International Monetary Fund and the Central Bank of West African States , and he was the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire from November 1990 to...
. Here became involved in politics and came to meet higher ranking officers who would eventually be involved in the 1999 Ivorian coup d'état
1999 Ivorian coup d'état
The 1999 Ivorian coup d'état took place on December 24, 1999. It was the first coup d'état since the independence of Côte d'Ivoire.- Background :...
.
1999 coup
Ibrahim Coulibaly became known as one of the leaders of the December 1999 coup that deposed President Henri Konan BédiéHenri Konan Bédié
Aimé Henri Konan Bédié is an Ivorian politician. He was President of Côte d'Ivoire from 1993 to 1999, and he is currently the President of the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire - African Democratic Rally .-Biography:...
and brought brought military leader Robert Guéï
Robert Guéï
Robert Guéï was the military ruler of the Côte d'Ivoire from December 24, 1999 to October 26, 2000.Guéï was born in Kabakouma, a village in the western Man region, and was a member of the Yakouba tribe. He was a career soldier: under the French administration, he was trained at the Ouagadougou...
to power. It was Guéï who first appointed Coulibaly to political position, naming him military attache to the Ivorian Ambassador to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. When it became clear Guéï wished to continue in power after planned elections, a September 2000 assassination attempt was reputedly planned by members of the military. Coulibaly, implicated in the plot, fled the country.
Ivorian Civil War
The contentious October 2000 elections, in which Ouattara was disqualified, thwarted Guéï's attempt to remain in power and made Laurent GbagboLaurent Gbagbo
Laurent Koudou Gbagbo served as the fourth President of Côte d'Ivoire from 2000 until his arrest in April 2011. A historian by profession, he is also an amateur chemist and physicist....
President of Côte d'Ivoire. Continued tensions of citizenship and ethnicity, like those that led to the 1999 coup, saw another failed coup attempt in January 2001. Coulibaly was again implicated and fled to Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
, where he and other opponents of the Gbagbo government were sheltered by regional rival Blaise Compaore
Blaise Compaoré
Blaise Compaoré has been the President of Burkina Faso since 1987 following a coup d'état that ousted then-President Thomas Sankara. In 2011, a mutiny by soldiers over unpaid housing allowances forced him to flee the capital for his hometown...
. In September 2002 Coulibaly returned to the north of Côte d'Ivoire, helping lead a seemingly successful coup against Gbagbo's government.Côte d'Ivoire Coulibaly's faction, one of many on the rebel side, held territory in and around Bouaké before both sides fell into a stalemate that became the First Ivorian Civil War. Various factions were uneasily united in the northern based Forces Nouvelles de Côte d'Ivoire
Forces Nouvelles de Côte d'Ivoire
The Forces Nouvelles de Côte d'Ivoire is a political coalition that was formed in December 2002, in the wake of the first peace accords of the Ivorian Civil War.-Composition:FNCI includes these political parties:...
, led from Bouaké. in In August 2003 he was arrested in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
under suspicion of seeking to destabilize the Ivorian government, but he was released on bail in September. In June 2004 fighting broke out between his followers and those of rival rebel commander Guillaume Soro
Guillaume Soro
Guillaume Kigbafori Soro has served as the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire since 4 April 2007...
. In January 2005 Coulibaly expressed support for efforts by the African Union
African Union
The African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established on 9 July 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity...
at mediating the political crisis.
Coulibaly's associates were allegedly responsible for the assassination attempt on Ivorian Prime Minister Guillaume Soro
Guillaume Soro
Guillaume Kigbafori Soro has served as the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire since 4 April 2007...
in June 2007.
On December 30, 2007, the New Forces (former rebels) accused Coulibaly of attempting a coup on the night of December 27–28. It said that he had moved towards the Côte d'Ivoire-Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
border to "join his accomplices" on that night; he had previously been staying in Cotonou
Cotonou
-Demographics:*1979: 320,348 *1992: 536,827 *2002: 665,100 *2005: 690,584 The main languages spoken in Cotonou include the Fon language, Aja language, Yoruba language and French.-Transport:...
, Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
, but was ordered to leave Benin by that country's government for allegedly working to destabilize Côte d'Ivoire. A clash on that night in Bouake
Bouaké
Bouaké is the second largest city in Côte d'Ivoire, with a population of 775,300 . It is the main urban settlement of the Bouaké Department with a population exceeding 1.2 million, in the Vallée du Bandama Region...
led to the death of Seydou Traore, who the New Forces said was working for Coulibaly as the "central coordinator of the conspiracy". Those involved in the clash who were captured were said to have identified Coulibaly as the leader of the plot.
Arrest warrants
France and Côte d'Ivoire have both issued international arrest warrants for Coulibaly. On March 10, 2008, a trial of Coulibaly, involving his alleged plot to seize power and kill Gbagbo with mercenaries in 2003, began in Paris. Coulibaly was tried in absentia; his lawyers said that they did not know where he was. 12 co-defendants were on trial with him, and most of them were present, having been arrested in France in mid-2003. On March 11, Coulibaly denied the charges in an interview with Agence France-PresseAgence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...
, saying that he had never attempted to recruit any mercenaries in France. According to Coulibaly, he was in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
at the time of the interview and would not go to France to participate in the trial. He claimed that the legal proceedings against him were intended to keep him from returning to Côte d'Ivoire to run against Gbagbo in the 2008 presidential election
Ivorian general election, 2008
Ivorian general election, 2010 may refer to one of two elections that were held in Côte d'Ivoire in 2010 :* Ivorian presidential election, 2010 : were held October 31,2010 ;...
.
The French court found Coulibaly guilty of "heading or organising a group with mercenary objectives", and sentenced him in absentia to four years in prison on June 4, 2008. Five of his co-defendants were acquitted and the remaining seven were given sentences lighter than Coulibaly's.
2010–2011 Ivorian crisis2010–2011 Ivorian crisisThe 2010–11 Ivorian crisis was a political crisis in Côte d'Ivoire which began after Laurent Gbagbo, the President of Côte d'Ivoire since 2000, was proclaimed the winner of the Ivorian election of 2010, the first election in the country in 10 years...
In January 2011 Coulibaly appeared as the reputed head of a militia group supportive of Presidential claimant Alassane OuattaraAlassane Ouattara
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is an Ivorian politician who has been President of Côte d'Ivoire since 2011. An economist by profession, Ouattara worked for the International Monetary Fund and the Central Bank of West African States , and he was the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire from November 1990 to...
. Based in the Abidjan
Abidjan
Abidjan is the economic and former official capital of Côte d'Ivoire, while the current capital is Yamoussoukro. it was the largest city in the nation and the third-largest French-speaking city in the world, after Paris, and Kinshasa but before Montreal...
neighborhood of Abobo
Abobo
Abobo is a northern suburb of Abidjan and urban commune of this city in Côte d'Ivoire. Abobo is one of the most populated communes in the country with about 1,500,000 inhabitants in an area of 9,000 ha , a density of 167 inhabitants per hectare. It is home to a railway station located on the road...
, the militia calling itself The Invisible Commandos led a series of surprise raids against forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo
Laurent Gbagbo
Laurent Koudou Gbagbo served as the fourth President of Côte d'Ivoire from 2000 until his arrest in April 2011. A historian by profession, he is also an amateur chemist and physicist....
. After the March 2011 offensive
Second Ivorian Civil War
The Second Ivorian Civil War broke out in March 2011 when the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire escalated into full-scale military conflict between forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, the President of Côte d'Ivoire since 2000, and supporters of the internationally recognised president-elect Alassane Ouattara...
by forces loyal to Ouattara reached the capital and deposed Gbagbo, the Ivorian Armed Forces siding with Ouattara and Guillaume Soro (the Republican Forces of Côte d'Ivoire) began operations to disarm militias on both sides, including Coulibaly. On 27 April 2011, according to an Ivorian defense ministry spokesman, Coulibaly was killed by FRCI forces.
See also
- 1999 Ivorian coup d'état1999 Ivorian coup d'étatThe 1999 Ivorian coup d'état took place on December 24, 1999. It was the first coup d'état since the independence of Côte d'Ivoire.- Background :...
- First Ivorian Civil War (2002)
- Assassination attempt on Guillaume Soro (2007)
- 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis2010–2011 Ivorian crisisThe 2010–11 Ivorian crisis was a political crisis in Côte d'Ivoire which began after Laurent Gbagbo, the President of Côte d'Ivoire since 2000, was proclaimed the winner of the Ivorian election of 2010, the first election in the country in 10 years...
- Second Ivorian Civil WarSecond Ivorian Civil WarThe Second Ivorian Civil War broke out in March 2011 when the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire escalated into full-scale military conflict between forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, the President of Côte d'Ivoire since 2000, and supporters of the internationally recognised president-elect Alassane Ouattara...
(2011)