Arrest warrant against Soro a 'hostile act' against Ivory Coast

Aides close to the head of the Ivorian National Assembly, Guillaume Soro have said the warrant of arrest issued against him by Burkina Faso was a ‘hostile act.’

“The issuance of this mandate is a hostile act against Ivory Coast and it will not be answered,” said Moussa Toure.

Burkina Faso issued the warrant against Mr Soro in connection with a failed coup last year after his telephone recordings with Djibrill Bassole, a former Burkina foreign minister were tapped.

Africanews correspondent in Ouagadougou, Salouka Boureima confirmed the arrest warrant had been issued by a court in Burkina Faso.

Soro was a leading figure in the 2011 low-level civil war in Ivory Coast which split the world’s top cocoa producer in half.

He was accused by partisans of then Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo of being backed by Burkina Faso’s long serving president Blaise Compaore, before he was toppled in a popular uprising in 2014, a charge the rebels denied.

According to the telephone taps the two men allegedly discussed backing a week-long coup in September in which elite soldiers seized power and briefly took Burkina Faso’s interim president hostage.

In December, the Burkinabe Prime Minister at the time, Isaac Zida, said the recordings were authentic.