Ivory Coast | Former 1st lady gets 20 years’ jail for violence

Simone GbagboFormer first lady Simone Gbagbo was sentenced yesterday to 20 years’ jail by an Ivory Coast court for her part in post-election violence that killed more than 3,000 people four years ago. Her lawyer, Rodrigue Dadje, called it a “purely political decision to keep her out of the political game.” But there was jubilation from a prosecutor. “We have shown that impunity cannot continue in Ivory Coast,” said Soungalo Coulibaly, a state lawyer who participated in the legal action. Former President Laurent Gbagbo awaits trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for alleged war crimes including rape, murder and persecuting political opponents before his fall from power in 2011. Ivory Coast refused the international court’s order to surrender his wife for trial there on similar charges. Instead, an Ivorian court found her guilty of undermining state security. She had pleaded not guilty.

APTOPIX UkraineUkraine | President says arms withdrawal almost complete

Ukraine’s president says government and Russian-backed separatist forces have pulled back the bulk of their artillery and rocket launchers from the front line in the east, in compliance with a cease-fire deal. Petro Poroshenko told a state broadcaster Monday evening that some heavy weaponry remains in place at the airport of the rebel-held city of Donetsk, however. Progress in the arms-withdrawal process agreed at high-level peace talks last month will boost attempts to bring a definitive end to a conflict that has killed more than 6,000 and displaced 1.5 million people. The pullback is being overseen by hundreds of monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has complained of a lack of cooperation by the warring sides.

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