Two members of former President Gbagbo's party arrested in Ivory Coast for alleged attacks on the state.

Ivorian authorities arrested two leaders of the African People's Party (APP) on Tuesday, the party of former Ivorian president and current opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo, after charging them with several charges, including inciting insurrection, with less than a month to go before the country's presidential elections.

Nestor Dahi and Blaise Lasm were transferred to a prison in the country's capital, Abidjan, after being held in police custody for more than 24 hours, the party reported in a statement reported by the Ivorian news site Koaci.

The charges for which they were arrested and subsequently interrogated include, in addition to inciting insurrection, attacking the authority of the State and the integrity of the national territory and disturbing public order.

The PPA has expressed its indignation at this measure that it has described as "arbitrary and unfair", denouncing an "attempt of repression" by the current Ivorian Government to silence the opposition in the face of its "undemocratic excesses."

Gbagbo's party has also described the arrest of its members as an "attack" on individual freedoms, including the right to freedom of expression.

The arrest of Dahi and Lasm comes less than a month before Ivorians go to the polls on October 25 in a presidential election from which the leader of the PPA and the president of the opposition Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI), Tidjane Thiam, have been excluded.

Their candidacies have been rejected because participation in the elections requires registration on the electoral roll, from which Gbagbo has been excluded since 2020 due to a court ruling. Thiam is not included in the electoral roll due to administrative reasons, which he himself denounces as a plan to remove him from the electoral race.

Electoral processes in recent years in the Ivorian country have been marked by tensions, especially following the civil war that broke out in 2010, when Gbagbo refused to recognize the victory of the current Ivorian president, Alassane Ouattara, who is now seeking a controversial fourth term.