Five months on from opposition protests banned by the authorities that saw hundreds of people arrested, including pregnant women, some are still being held even though they had no involvement in the protests, while others have been convicted in unfair trials, Amnesty International said today.
Amnesty International: In October 2025, a few days before the presidential election, hundreds of people, including protesters and passersby, were arrested during the crackdown on protests. Several of them have been convicted in unfair trials in which they were denied a lawyer. Dozens of others, including a pregnant woman, remain in pretrial detention, according to lawyers.
“Today, five months after their arrest, people are still being held solely because they happened to be in the vicinity of the protests. The Ivorian authorities must order their release,” said Marceau Sivieude, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa.
“According to our information, several of the prisoners detained since October 2025 have not been allowed to see family members or lawyers, and are not receiving adequate medical care. We are very concerned about the situation of three women who, despite being in the advanced stages of pregnancy, are being held at the Abidjan prison complex.”
Two of the pregnant women were convicted a few days after their arrest in October 2025 for ‘disturbing public order’, ‘participating in an unauthorized demonstration’, and ‘gathering on public roads’.
