Ivory Coast: former Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny is dead
Charles Konan Banny during a meeting in Abidjan in October 2015. AFP - SIA KAMBOU
Text by: François Mazet Follow
2 min
Former Ivorian Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny died this Friday, September 10, 2021. He was evacuated to Paris on Saturday, September 4, according to our colleagues from
Jeune Afrique
, following complications related to Covid-19 where he is died in the American Hospital of Neuilly.
Aged 78, he was a central figure in the Ivorian political scene, in the shadow of the "big three" that he successively served.
Advertising
Read more
Born in 1942 in Divo in the south of Côte d'Ivoire, Charles Konan Banny comes from a family of planters and senior Baoulé officials, pillars of Houphouëtist power, of which he will follow. After studying at Essec, a large French business school from which he graduated in 1968, he joined the Caisse de Stabilization et de Support des Prix des Productions Agricoles, first, then at the InterAfricaine du Café Organization, from which he is the general secretary.
In 1976, he joined the BCEAO, he climbed all the levels until the post of governor, from 1990, when he succeeded Alassane Ouattara, who became Prime Minister.
In 1994, he had to manage the effects of the devaluation of the CFA Franc or the bankruptcy of Air Afrique, but he continued at the head of the sub-regional bank, until another crisis brought him to the active politics.
In 2005, he became transitional Prime Minister in a torn Ivory Coast, while the presidential election was postponed.
For 16 months, he was tossed about by the turmoil of the crisis, served as an intermediary between Laurent Gbagbo and Jacques Chirac who did not get along, recognized “negligence” in the Probo Koala affair, which almost won.
He gave up his place in 2007
At the same time, he is trying to take control of the PDCI, the historic party of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, but Henri Konan Bedié will keep control.
The peace agreements follow one another but are never really applied, until that of Ouagadougou, in 2007, after which he must give way to Guillaume Soro.
Charles Konan Banny is a man of consensus.
Alassane Ouattara, who came to power in 2011, remembers this.
He appointed him president of the “Commission for Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation”.
Its mission will last three years, its results are appreciated differently according to the political families.
After Laurent Gbagbo's return to Abidjan in mid-June, Charles Konan Banny highlighted his experience on the issue of reconciliation, and republished the conclusions and recommendations of the CDVR, a "concrete base" according to him.
He supported an “inclusive national dialogue”, defending the “Houphouëtien consensus” as a modus vivendi in Côte d'Ivoire.
Passionate about football, Charles Konan Banny was married and the father of four children.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast Politics