Côte d’Ivoire’s 79-year-old President Alassane Ouattara (ADO) was forced to change after experiencing the sudden loss of Amadou Gon Coulibaly (AGC) in July 2020 and then Hamed Bakayoko in March 2021. The deaths of Coulibaly and Bakayoko – two pillars of his system who tragically died within one year of each other – have delivered a blow with serious consequences.
The Ivorian head of state liked to say that AGC was his intellectual double. Over the course of more than 30 years of companionship, they had learned to work together. One could even say that these two technocrats spoke the same language. Once ADO appointed AGC as prime minister in January 2017, all dossiers went through the latter’s office or that of his many advisers.
Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Alassane Ouattara’s double
AGC was also the cornerstone of the Rassemblement des Houphouëtistes pour la Démocratie et la Paix (RHDP), a
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