The Prime Minister of Cote d’Ivoire Amadou Gon Coulibaly died in Abidjan at the age of 61, six days after returning from Paris where he underwent heart surgery, the secretary general of the presidency, Patrick Achi, told national television, RTI1.
“Cote d’Ivoire is mourning! I am deeply saddened to announce that Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly has passed this afternoon after taking part in the cabinet meeting this Wednesday, July 8, 2020, at the Presidential Palace,” Mr. Patrick Achi said.
On behalf of the government and on his own behalf, President Alassane Ouattara offered his deepest condolences to the great Gon Coulibaly family, as well as to all Ivorians, the statement read by Mr. Patrick Achi said.
“I pay tribute to my younger brother, my son Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who was my closest collaborator for 30 years, I salute the memory of a statesman of great loyalty, devotion and love for his country,” said Mr. Ouattara.
The Ivorian president said Coulibaly had embodied a young generation of Ivorian executives of great competence and extreme loyalty to the nation.
With his passing, Cote d’Ivoire has lost a role model for the youth, and a paragon of competence, hard work and self-sacrifice, the Ivorian leader said of the man who had worked with him for decades.
On Monday, Amadou Gon Coulibaly, resumed work at the Prime Minister’s Office.
His first audience was with a French mission within the framework of the 3rd C2D (Debt Reduction and Development Contract).
His footsteps were heavy, harbouring his illness.
Coulibaly had been nominated as the candidate of the ruling Houphouetists Rally for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) party for the October 31 presidential election.
AP/ls/lb/as/APA