Ivory Coast Prime Minister Coulibaly dies suddenly
Ivory Coast Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly died suddenly on Wednesday aged 61.
The secretary to President Alassane Ouattara read a statement from the president on state TV confirming Coulibaly’s death.
“Fellow compatriots, Ivory Coast is mourning. It is with deep pain that I announce to you that Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly has left us,” he said.
Officials said Coulibaly was unwell during a ministerial meeting at the presidential palace in Abidjan and was rushed to a hospital where he passed away. It is currently unclear how Coulibaly died.
He had returned to the Ivory Coast last week after undergoing medical treatment for two months in France. Some have speculated that the medical treatment was related to his 2012 heart transplant.
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Ivory Coast: a slow rebirth
Strangers in their own country
Ivory Coast is home to 62 different ethnic groups, including the Peuls. But many don’t have Ivorian citizenship because the government demands that at least one of their parents were born here — difficult to prove without proper documents. Without Ivorian citizenship, they can’t open a bank account or get a driver’s license, leaving many Peuls feeling like foreigners in their own country.
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Ivory Coast: a slow rebirth
Traditional fabrics tell a story
“Tell me which fabric you wear and I will tell you who are,” is a common saying among Ivorians. The traditional wax print fabric is commonly worn by women and each pattern sends a different message to their husbands. The hibiscus flower wax pattern, for example, symbolizes happiness in marriage.
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Ivory Coast: a slow rebirth
Damaging beauty standards persist
Although they’ve officially been banned since 2015, skin-lightening products are still very popular here. Bleaching dark skin can cause irreparable damage and can even lead to hypertension and diabetes. Still, many pharmacies make a lot of money discreetly selling such products, as well as doctors who can prescribe them. One out of two women in the capital, Abidjan, uses skin lightening products.
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Ivory Coast: a slow rebirth
Leaning an ancient art
Young girls dance with their bodies coated with kaolin in Aniansué. They are learning to become komians: Traditional healers and fortune tellers. Komians are known for their ability to cure bad luck and predict the future and are often consulted by the country’s most powerful politicans and local chiefs. A unique school teaches this art in the Akan culture.
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Ivory Coast: a slow rebirth
Fake medicine brings false hope
Almost half of the population live below the poverty line, making it easy to exploit those in need of healthcare. Approximately 600 tons of fake medicine have been seized over the last three years, representing a third of all medicines sold in the country. Most of it is imported from Asia. Signs like these are commonly seen outside shops selling ‘Made in China’ medicines.
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Ivory Coast: a slow rebirth
Dreaming of a new life abroad
The world learned of the plight of Ivorian refugees in early 2020 after the body of a teenage boy was found in the landing gear of a plane. Driven by a lack of job prospects, many young people dream of starting a new life abroad, taking dangerous migration roads to reach the Mediterreanean. President Alassane Ouattara has promised to create 200,000 new jobs a year, but the youth aren’t convinced.
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Ivory Coast: a slow rebirth
Waiting for ‘women’s gold’
An man patiently waits to buy karite or shea butter in the Savanes District. The product is known as “women’s gold” across Africa, as it is primarly women who earn money making and selling it to consumers via small cooperatives. Used in make-up and food, shea butter is popular all over the world.
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Ivory Coast: a slow rebirth
Woman take charge of an age-old cuisine
An Ivorian woman from the “Femmes battantes cooperative” (Women fighters cooperative) wraps attiéké, a traditional type of couscous made from cassava tubers. Women are also in charge of the production of attiéké: They grow the cassava, process it and sell it along the side the road. This income is often used to send their children to school.
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Ivory Coast: a slow rebirth
Mining still a man’s world
The booming mining industry meanwhile remains dominated by men. But that hasn’t stopped some women from wanting to work in the sector. However, they are often victims of clandestine exploitation and the work is notoriously exhausting under the blazing sun.
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Ivory Coast: a slow rebirth
A struggling cocoa sector
In Ivory Coast, the cocoa sector is on the verge of a new crisis. Small traders are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with larger local cooperatives which hold most of the contracts with major chocolate manufacturers such as Mars or Nestle. Out of 3,000 cocoa cooperatives in the country, just over 200 are fair trade certified.
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Ivory Coast: a slow rebirth
A place of worship
The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro was consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1990 and was said to have cost $300 million (€277 million) to build. It’s even bigger than St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, which it is basedon. The basilica can accommodate 200,000 people: 7,000 inside and the rest out on the esplanade. But today, only a few hundred people flock to Sunday mass.
‘My younger brother, my son’
Ouattara’s party has been in power since election violence ten years ago that left some 3,000 people dead after then-president Laurent Gbagbo refused to acknowledge his defeat in a run-off election.
Coulibaly served as the prime minister since January 2017 after serving as secretary general of the presidency for six years. Ouattara called Coulibaly “my younger brother, my son” during the statement.
“I salute the memory of a statesman, a man of great loyalty, dedication and love for his homeland,” added Ouattara.
He was picked as the candidate for the ruling Rally of the Republican party in the upcoming elections in October. Coulibaly’s death could throw the upcoming election into chaos. Ouattara is required to step down after finishing his second term in office.
kbd/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/ivory-coast-prime-minister-coulibaly-dies-suddenly/a-54098915?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf