Freiburg, Yamoussoukro. The Prime Minister of Ivory Coast, Hamed Bakayoko, died of cancer after being treated in Germany. President Alassane Ouattara said on Twitter on Wednesday evening that Bakayoko had served the West African country with devotion and great sacrifice. According to media reports, Bakayoko died in a hospital in Freiburg im Breisgau just a few months after the death of his predecessor.
Opposition respected Bakayoko
In early July, Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly collapsed during a cabinet meeting due to heart problems and died a short time later. With the death of Bakayoko, the ruling party RHDP once again lost a politician popular with the population and respected by the opposition. Bakayoko has been Minister of Defense since 2017 and Prime Minister since July 2020.
Bakayoko was praised for bringing parties together in the highly polarized country. There were repeated outbreaks of violence in the Ivory Coast because of political disputes, most recently around the presidential election at the end of October. The parliamentary elections on Saturday, however, were largely peaceful. According to the preliminary final result, the RHDP received 54 percent of the vote.
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