Ivory Coast arrests 237 protesters amid rising tensions before presidential election

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — At least 237 people were arrested Saturday in Ivory Coast during a protest against what activists called the country's authoritarian drift, according to a statement by the Minister of the Interior and Security on national television.

Protesters reported the use of tear gas and makeshift roadblocks near the planned start of the march.

Ivory Coast, a nation of 32 million and the largest economy in Francophone West Africa, is due to hold a presidential election in two weeks. Earlier this year, four main opposition figures, including former President Laurent Gbagbo and former Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam, were barred from running by the electoral commission.

Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara, who has been in power since 2010, announced his intention to run for a fourth term earlier this year, in a controversial move following a 2016 constitutional change that removed the presidential term limit.

The day before the protest, the prefect of Abidjan declared that all marches in the capital on Saturday were illegal because of the need to maintain order during the election period.

“All these people will be held accountable for their actions,” Gen. Vagondo Diomandė, the Minister of the Interior and Security said, reiterating that the protest was illegal.

Elections in Ivory Coast have usually been fraught with tension and violence. When Ouattara announced his bid for a third term, several people were killed in election violence.

Ouattara is the latest among a growing number of leaders in West Africa who remain in power by changing constitutional term limits. He justified his decision to run again by saying that the Ivory Coast is facing unprecedented security, economic and monetary challenges that require experience to manage them effectively.

Over the past decade, groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have been spreading from the Sahel region into wealthier West African coastal states, such as Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin.

Police arrest a protester during clashes with opposition supporters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025 (AP Photo/Diomande Ble Blonde)

Police arrest a protester during clashes with opposition supporters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025 (AP Photo/Diomande Ble Blonde)

Police arrest a protester during clashes with opposition supporters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025 (AP Photo/Diomande Ble Blonde)

Police arrest a protester during clashes with opposition supporters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025 (AP Photo/Diomande Ble Blonde)

People walk past a campaign poster of President Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025 (AP Photo/Diomande Ble Blonde)

UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A New York prison guard who failed to intervene as he watched an inmate being beaten to death should be convicted of manslaughter, a prosecutor told a jury Thursday in the final trial of correctional officers whose pummeling, recorded by body-cameras, provoked outrage.

“For seven minutes — seven gut-churning, nauseating, disgusting minutes — he stood in that room close enough to touch him and he did nothing,” special prosecutor William Fitzpatrick told jurors during closing arguments. The jury began deliberating Thursday afternoon.

Former corrections officer Michael Fisher, 55, is charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Robert Brooks, who was beaten by guards upon his arrival at Marcy Correctional Facility on the night of Dec. 9, 2024, his agony recorded silently on the guards' body cameras.

Fisher’s attorney, Scott Iseman, said his client entered the infirmary after the beating began and could not have known the extent of his injuries.

Fisher was among 10 guards indicted in February. Three more agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges in return for cooperating with prosecutors. Of the 10 officers indicted in February, six pleaded guilty to manslaughter or lesser charges. Four rejected plea deals. One was convicted of murder, and two were acquitted in the first trial last fall.

Fisher, standing alone, is the last of the guards to face a jury.

The trial closes a chapter in a high-profile case led to reforms in New York's prisons. But advocates say the prisons remain plagued by understaffing and other problems, especially since a wildcat strike by guards last year.

Officials took action amid outrage over the images of the guards beating the 43-year-old Black man in the prison's infirmary. Officers could be seen striking Brooks in the chest with a shoe, lifting him by the neck and dropping him.

Video shown to the jury during closing arguments Thursday indicates Fisher stood by the doorway and didn't intervene.

“Did Michael Fisher recklessly cause the death of Robert Brooks? Of course he did. Not by himself. He had plenty of other helpers,” said Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney.

Iseman asked jurors looking at the footage to consider what Fisher could have known at the time “without the benefit of 2020 hindsight.”

“Michael Fisher did not have a rewind button. He did not have the ability to enhance. He did not have the ability to pause. He did not have the ability to get a different perspective of what was happening in the room,” Iseman said.

Even before Brooks' death, critics claimed the prison system was beset by problems that included brutality, overworked staff and inconsistent services. By the time criminal indictments were unsealed in February, the system was reeling from an illegal three-week wildcat strike by corrections officers who were upset over working conditions. Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed National Guard troops to maintain operations. More than 2,000 guards were fired.

Prison deaths during the strike included Messiah Nantwi on March 1 at Mid-State Correctional Facility, which is across the road from the Marcy prison. 10 other guards were indicted in Nantwi's death in April, including two charged with murder.

There are still about 3,000 National Guard members serving the state prison system, according to state officials.

“The absence of staff in critical positions is affecting literally every aspect of prison operations. And I think the experience for incarcerated people is neglect,” Jennifer Scaife, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, an independent monitoring group, said on the eve of Fisher's trial.

Hochul last month announced a broad reform agreement with lawmakers that includes a requirement that cameras be installed in all facilities and that video recordings related to deaths behind bars be promptly released to state investigators.

The state also lowered the hiring age for correction officers from 21 to 18 years of age.

FILE - This image provided by the New York State Attorney General office shows body camera footage of correction officers beating a handcuffed man, Robert Brooks, at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, N.Y., Dec. 9, 2024. (New York State Attorney General office via AP, File)