Something strange happened when former Côte d’Ivoire president Laurent Gbagbo landed back home last week on Thursday from the Hague where he was being held.
That was when his estranged wife Simone Gbagbo turned up at the airport, hugged Gbagbo and had a few words with him before leaving.
Gbagbo was in the company of a woman – former journalist Nady Bamba he is said to be dating.
An now, Gbagbo has filed for a divorce as he seeks to part ways with his wife Simone Gbagbo.
The ex-president filed for the divorce on Monday, June 21, just days after returning from The Hague where he was being held. Gbagbo was acquitted after 10 years away in Netherlands where he was being held with relation to the 2010 post-election violence that left 3,000 people dead.
The divorce was filed at the Court of First Instance of Abidjan amid rumours that Gbagbo and his wife were not in speaking terms.
The couple, which got married in 1989, have two daughters. They have been in political activism together and jointly formed the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) which, after years of opposition to Côte d’Ivoire’s independence leader Félix Houphouët-Boigny, would eventually win elections in 2000.
There are rumours that Gbagbo is in a love relationship with 46-year-old Nady Bamba.