Ivorian Prime Minister Patrick Achi, 65, returned to Côte d'Ivoire on Friday May 14 after receiving treatment for four days in France, saying he was "in great shape" on public television.

"I feel very good. I came back in good shape to go back to work," Patrick Achi told Ivorian Radio-Television (RTI) at Abidjan airport, where he was greeted by a delegation of several. ministers.

Patrick Achi had traveled to France by a special flight on the night of Monday to Tuesday following intestinal bleeding, according to a source close to the prime minister who requested anonymity.

No specific information was given on his state of health by the Ivorian authorities, who declined to comment to AFP.  

Third Prime Minister in one year

Patrick Achi is the third Prime Minister known to Côte d'Ivoire in a year, after the sudden deaths of the two previous ones.

Close to President Alassane Ouattara, Patrick Achi was appointed head of government on March 26, succeeding Hamed Bakayoko, who died two weeks earlier, at the age of 56, from severe cancer.

The latter had himself succeeded in July 2020 to Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who died at 61 years of age from heart problems.

At the head of his government appointed on April 6, Patrick Achi has the difficult task of pursuing the policy of national reconciliation in a country with a recent history marked by political violence, following the largely won legislative elections of March 6. by the Rassemblement des Houphouëtistes pour la democratie et la paix (RHDP, in power). 

These elections took place calmly and with the participation of all opposition parties, unlike the presidential election of October 31, 2020 boycotted by the opposition and marked by violence that killed around 100 people, which resulted in the re-election of Alassane Ouattara for a controversial third term.

With AFP

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