Former Ivorian Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny is dead

Former Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire Charles Konan Banny died on Friday, September 10, of pulmonary and respiratory complications linked to Covid-19, we learned from his relatives. Infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Abidjan, he was transferred last week to the American hospital in Neuilly, where he died at the age of 78.

“It changed my perception of Ivorian politics and some of its actors”, reacted quickly Guillaume Soro, another former prime minister, now in exile. Born in Divo, Mr. Konan Banny, son of a Baoulé planter (one of the largest ethnic groups in the country), graduated from the prestigious Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (Essec) in Paris.

Read the report: In Ivory Coast, the impossible reconciliation

After working in the state management of the cocoa sector in Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest exporter, in 1976 he joined the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) at its headquarters in Dakar, where he then worked his way up. Acting governor of this institution (1990-1993), he was confirmed in his functions on 1er January 1994, three weeks before the devaluation of the CFA franc, which will play a big role in its image as“Man of France”. He held this post until his arrival in 2005 at the “Prime minister” Ivorian.

Prime Minister, then in charge of reconciliation

A member of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI), Mr. Konan Banny was thus imposed as prime minister to Laurent Gbagbo by the international community in December 2005. He finally chose to form a real tandem with the president, who did not However, he ceded no power and quashed some of his decisions. He had left his post a little over a year after being appointed, in April 2007.

In 2011, after the post-election crisis which left 3,000 dead, he was appointed president of the Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CDVR). But he obtains mixed results. Despite poignant testimonies and the hearing of some 72,000 victims, the CDVR had a very weak response in the population and did not arouse the “Catharsis” hoped for in Ivory Coast.

Article reserved for our subscribers Read also The hesitant beginnings of the public hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Côte d’Ivoire

Originally from Yamoussoukro, hometown of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, father of the Ivorian nation and founder of his party, the PDCI, Mr. Konan Banny launched in 2015 in the presidential race against Alassane Ouattara, but he finally had threw in the towel, claiming to refuse to participate in a “Electoral masquerade”.

The World with AFP

www.lemonde.fr

Leave a Comment