Abidjan, Sept 3 (ANI): Chelsea footballer Didier Drogba has reportedly agreed to join an 11-member Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up to heal the wounds left by over four months of fighting in Ivory Coast.
A presidential election in November last year led Ivory Coast into violence when former President Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept his loss and used soldiers, militias and mercenaries to crush dissent. A power struggle between Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara, the internationally-recognised winner of the election, rekindled a civil war and killed 3,000 people until Gbagbo was captured by French-backed pro-Ouattara forces in April, The Telegraph reports.
Following the violence, current President Ouattara set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, inspired by the body that helped South Africa move on after the end of apartheid.
Meanwhile, the president of the Ivorian commission, former Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny, has said that Drogba had agreed to join the body as a representative of the country's diaspora.
"I just met President Ouattara and we talk about the start of our work. All members of the commission will be officially known then, but I can already tell you that Didier Drogba has agreed to be a member of the commission," Banny said.
Drogba, a national hero who has scored 49 goals for his country, had called for calm during the fighting. .
Banny said the Ivorian version would start working on Monday and have two years to complete its work, the paper added.
The U.N. and several human rights organisations accused both sides in Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, of committing atrocities including rapes and mass killings. (ANI)
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