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Pardoned Ivorian soldiers arrive home after six months in Malian captivity

Pardoned Ivorian soldiers arrive home after six months in Malian captivity

LOUCOUMANE COULIBALY FORTY-SIX Ivorian soldiers recently pardoned by Mali's junta flew home to Ivory Coast's Abidjan airport after around six months in captivity, state television showed. Their return signals the apparent resolution of a diplomatic standoff between the West African neighbours that also worsened Mali's already tense relations with regional powers. Emerging from the plane, each soldier held a small Ivorian flag and smiled as he shook hands with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara who was waiting to greet them at the airport. "Now that this crisis is behind us, we can resume normal relations with the brother country of Mali,"…
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Ivory Coast President Ouattara to meet predecessors in reconciliation drive

Ivory Coast President Ouattara to meet predecessors in reconciliation drive

LOUCOUMANE COULIBALY IVORY Coast President Alassane Ouattara will hold a rare meeting with his predecessors and longtime rivals Laurent Gbagbo and Henri Konan Bedie in an effort to reconcile the West African nation ahead of elections in 2025. The three men have dominated Ivory Coast's fractious political scene since the 1990s. Bedie was president from 1993 until his ouster in a 1999 coup. Gbagbo governed from 2000 until his election defeat to Ouattara in 2010. Tensions came to a head most dramatically after the 2010 election. Gbagbo refused to concede defeat, leading to a brief civil war that killed about…
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Ivory Coast President to name slimmed-down govt

Ivory Coast President to name slimmed-down govt

IVORY COAST Prime Minister Patrick Achi tabled his resignation and that of his government as President Alassane Ouattara plans to slim down the size of the cabinet, Ouattara said. Ouattara said he would reduce the government to around 30 ministers from the current 41, with new appointments to be made next week to govern the world's top cocoa producer. The president is expected to address a joint session of the West African country's parliament on April 19, a government spokesman told Reuters. Alassane Ouattara. PIcture: Flickr "It is imperative to reduce state spending and re-focus on social and security resilience,"…
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Defiant junta rejects pressure to let Conde leave Guinea

Defiant junta rejects pressure to let Conde leave Guinea

SALIOU SAMB GUINEA’S military junta has refused to bow to regional pressure and allow President Alpha Conde, detained since his overthrow on September 5, to leave the country. On Friday Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara and Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo paid a one-day visit to Conakry to ask coup leader Mamady Doumbouya, a special forces commander and former French Legionnaire, for Conde's release. Ouattara had been hoping to leave Guinea with Conde, a senior regional government official told Reuters. "The former president is and remains in Guinea. We will not yield to any pressure," the junta said in a statement…
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Ivory Coast Prime Minister in hospital

Ivory Coast Prime Minister in hospital

ANGE ABOA  IVORY Coast Prime Minister Patrick Achi, 65, has been admitted to hospital in Paris for medical tests, two sources close to him said. Achi, a close confidant of President Alassane Ouattara, was named prime minister in March following the death of the West African cocoa producer's second premier in less than eight months. The sources said Achi was being treated for "severe fatigue" suffered since his appointment in March. Achi replaced Hamed Bakayoko, who died of cancer at 56. Bakayoko had replaced Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who died following cardiac issues last July. A government spokesman was not immediately…
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‘Gbagbo “free to return” to Ivory Coast’

‘Gbagbo “free to return” to Ivory Coast’

LOUCOUMANE COULIBALY FORMER Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and one of his close allies have permission to return home following their acquittal on charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, President Alassane Ouattara said on Wednesday. But Gbagbo's return could be complicated by a 20-year sentence given to him in absentia in November 2019 by an Ivorian court for misappropriating funds from the regional central bank. While Ouattara did not say whether Gbagbo had been pardoned, his return could ease political tensions in the world's top cocoa producing nation after an October presidential election marred by violence.…
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President Ouattara keeps in the family

President Ouattara keeps in the family

LOUCOUMANE COULIBALY  IVORY Coast's President Alassane Ouattara has confirmed his younger brother Tene Birahima Ouattara as minister of defence, part of a slate of new appointments announced on Tuesday. The new defence minister will have to contend with Islamist violence spilling over from Burkina Faso in the north, and continue reforms that have calmed a series of army mutinies that threatened stability in the world's top cocoa-producing nation. Three soldiers were killed when dozens of militants attacked two military posts last week. Tene Birahima Ouattara was named interim defence minister in March after the death of Hamed Bakayoko, who had…
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Shock and uncertainty in Ivory Coast

Shock and uncertainty in Ivory Coast

MEDIA COULIBALY and ANGE ABOA IVORY Coast faced shock and uncertainty following the death of Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko, the West African nation's second premier to die in office in less than eight months. A close ally of President Alassane Ouattara, Bakayoko, who died of cancer a few days after his 56th birthday, was appointed prime minister in July 2020 after the death of his predecessor Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Ouattara's handpicked successor. Although Ouattara named his chief of staff Patrick Achi as interim prime minister on Monday while Bakayoko was in hospital, Bakayoko's passing leaves a vacuum for Ouattara to…
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Ivory Coast votes for parliament as Ouattara opponents join forces

Ivory Coast votes for parliament as Ouattara opponents join forces

ANGE ABOA and LOUCOUMANE COULIBALY IVORY COAST voted on Saturday in a legislative election, with President Alassane Ouattara’s allies facing a combined challenge from opposition parties led by two of his predecessors. The poll comes only months after Ouattara won a third term in an election marred by unrest that killed at least 85 people, the country’s worst violence since a 2010-2011 civil war. After boycotting the presidential election in October to protest Ouattara’s decision to seek a third term, the parties of former presidents Henri Konan Bedie and Laurent Gbagbo are fielding parliamentary candidates on joint lists. Clear control…
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