The Ivorian Prime Minister in Paris for health reasons

Hamed Bakayoko, Ivorian Prime Minister, left Abidjan for France on Thursday February 18 by “a special flight” for health reasons, Agence France-Presse learned from a source close to his entourage. “He arrived (in France) accompanied by his wife for a medical appointment,” said this source, who said he was “neither bedridden, nor on a stretcher”. This information had not been confirmed from an official source Thursday evening.

Aged 55, Hamed Bakayoko, known as “Hambak”, succeeded in July 2020 as Prime Minister to Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who died a few days after his return from hospitalization and a two-month convalescence in France for heart problems.

President Alassane Outtara, to whom he was very close, presented Amadou Gon Coulibaly as his party’s candidate for the October 2020 presidential election. His death prompted President Ouattara to stand for this election, while he had announced that he would not not wanting to run for a third term.

Legislative elections scheduled for March 6

Alassane Ouattara was largely reelected in this ballot boycotted by the opposition who called for “civil disobedience”. The electoral violence linked to this presidential election left 87 dead and nearly 500 injured.

Hamed Bakayoko’s departure to France for health reasons comes two weeks before the legislative elections of March 6. President Ouattara hoped Tuesday that this election will strengthen the majority of his government in the National Assembly.


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