Benin’s Albert Tevoedjre, a prominent political figure and former Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Cote d’Ivoire, has died in a clinic in Porto-Novo, at the age 90 years.
Mr. Tevoedjre died Tuesday in Porto-Novo, a city where he was born in November 1929. This emblematic personality nicknamed the “Djregbe Fox,” brought in 1987 a significant contribution to the Conference of the Living Forces of the Nation of Benin, which has ushered democracy in the country.
From February 2003 to February 2005, he served as Special Representative of UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan to assist the protagonists of the Ivorian crisis, as part of the implementation strategies of the Kleber Agreements, also from Linas-Marcoussis Agreements (France).
From 1977 to 1979 he was Professor on mission at the National University of Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, a country he was familiar with. The late PhD holder in Economics and Social Sciences has written several books, including “Poverty, Richness of Peoples,” prefaced by Nobel Prize winner, Jan Tinbergen and Dom Helder Camara, a Brazilian Catholic Archbishop and advocate of Liberation Theology.
After his country’s independence in August 1960, Albert Tevoedjre, a former leader of the Federation of Black African Students in France and co-founder of the African National Liberation Movement, was appointed State Secretary at the Presidency of the Republic and Minister of Information.
He was involved in his country’s politics, with a focus on diplomacy. In 2006, he played an important role in the election of former head of state Yayi Boni as president. As a successful negotiator, he sometimes threw his weight in the political debates with a view to ensure stability in Benin. Albert Tevoedjre was the State Ombudsman under former President Thomas Yayi Boni.
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