Ivory Coast president meets with ex-leaders

By TOUSSAINT N’GOTTA
Associated Press

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara met with his predecessors on Thursday in a rare meeting of adversaries in an effort to ease the national socio-political climate ahead of elections in 2025. The meeting between Ouattara and his longtime rivals Laurent Gbagbo and Henri Konan Bedie is the first of the three leaders in person since the end of the 2011 post-election crisis that killed at least 3,000 people. It took place at the Presidential Palace in Abidjan behind closed doors. Ouattara said he’d like these meetings to occur regularly.