Charles Blé Goudé, former Minister of Youth under President Laurent Gbagbo and former leader of the Patriotic Galaxy has rejected two African countries’ offer to welcome him.

Charles Blé Goudé wishes to return to Côte d’Ivoire. He has been staying in a residential hotel in The Hague, the Netherlands since his acquittal and release from jail by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

According to the pan-African magazine Jeune Afrique, the former leader of the Young Patriots, refused to go to South Africa and Uganda, which agreed to welcome him. According to the weekly magazine, Blé Goudé justified this refusal by his desire to return to his country, Côte d’Ivoire, in order to contribute to the ongoing process of national reconciliation.

He announced this in a post on his official page, “The country of my heart is Côte d’Ivoire. I want to go home and finish the reconciliation work that is still a fallow field,” wrote Blé Goudé on Monday, April 15, 2019.

From The Hague, Blé Goudé makes his calls for peace and reconciliation. In a recent video, Laurent Gbagbo’s Minister of Youth called on Ivorians to turn a blind eye to the pain experienced during the post-election crisis.

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Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé were charged with four counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, and other inhumane acts, or – in the alternative – attempted murder and persecution stemming from post-electoral violence in Côte d’Ivoire between December 16, 2010 and April 12, 2011. On January 15, 2019 Gbagbo and Blé Goudé were acquitted of all crimes.

This summary comes from Observateur Citoyen, which offers monitoring and commentary on the ICC’s proceedings arising from the post-election violence that occurred in Cote d’Ivoire in 2010-2011. It has been translated into English for use on International Justice Monitor.