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Ex-Ivory Coast Prime Minister Charles Banny dies of COVID-19
A former prime minister of Ivory Coast, Charles Konan Banny, died in a Paris hospital on Friday after contracting coronavirus, close aides said.
The 78-year-old French-educated banker, who was in office from 2005-2007, was being treated at the American Hospital in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine after contracting the Covid-19 in Ivory Coast.
“He changed my perception of Ivorian politics and of some of its actors,” said Guillaume Soro, another former prime minister who is now in exile.
A member of the Ivoirian Democratic Party, Banny became prime minister in December 2005 under a UN resolution. He served until April 2007.
In 2011, after an electoral crisis left 3,000 people dead, he was named head of the Commission for Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation.
The father-of-four had previously held the post of governor of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO).
He ran for president, unsuccessfully, in 2015 against current incumbent Alassane Ouattara.
AFP