Manifestation contre la vie chère: 16 personnes condamnées à 6 mois de prison en Côte-d’Ivoire pour "troubles à l’ordre public"https://t.co/VCPCEqhc0M
— Connectionivoirienne (@connectionivoir) September 20, 2024
Peaceful Assembly
Protesters arrested, sentenced to six months prison
On 13th September 2024, police officers arrested 25 people during an attempted protest organised by citizen platform Agir pour le peuple (AGIP; Act for the People), a platform uniting 78 civil society groups and organisations. The intended peaceful march in Abidjan, which was banned by authorities on 11th September 2024, planned to denounce the increase in food and electricity prices, to demand a halt to evictions and the destruction of precarious neighbourhoods and to demand efforts to avoid ‘violent and chaotic’ presidential elections, set to take place at the end of 2025.
A few days after the arrests, on 17th September 2024, the court of Yopougon sentenced 16 of those arrested to a prison sentence of six months for ‘disturbing public order’. At the time of writing, the secretary general of the platform, Armand Krikpeu, remained in the Abidjan penitentiary awaiting trial on accusations of ‘incitement to insurrection’, ‘endangering state security’, ‘disturbance of public order’ and ‘occupation of public places’. If found guilty, he could risk a prison sentence of 20 years.