Charles Konan Banny, who served as Ivory Coast’s prime minister from 2005 to 2007, has died in a hospital in Paris after he had contracted coronavirus, the AFP news agency quotes aides as saying.
President Alassane Ouattara paid tribute to Mr Konan Banny, who was 78, saying on Twitter that his “friend and brother” was “a great servant of the state” who made an important contribution to national reconciliation.
As well as serving as prime minister, Mr Konan Banny also headed the Commission for Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation that was set up after the violence that followed the disputed 2010 election, AFP says.
“He changed my perception of Ivorian politics and of some of its actors,” another former prime minister, Guillaume Soro, who is now in exile, is quoted as saying.
