Ivory Coast carnage claimed 3,000 lives - did former first lady plan the 2010 bloodbath after husband lost election?

Ivory Coast’s former first lady Simone Gbagbo went on trial Tuesday for crimes against humanity in what many see as a litmus case for justice in the west African country.

The hearings into the 66-year-old’s role in post-election carnage in 2010 that claimed thousands of lives is expected to last a month with at least 25 witnesses testifying.

Security was tight as a smiling Gbagbo was led in and seated in a red chair opposite the bench.

Nicknamed the “Iron Lady”, she is accused of planning and directing rights abuses against supporters of her husband’s presidential rival to try to maintain Laurent Gbagbo in power at all costs.

He was finally defeated at the polls however and is currently also facing trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

More than 3,000 people died in the bloody post-poll violence which petered out only after the arrest of the Gbagbo couple in 2011, when troops stormed the bunker where they had taken refuge in the nation’s main city, Abidjan.