The Ivorian Prime Minister died on July 8 afternoon in Abidjan. He collapsed during a meeting of the Council of Ministers. He died after being evacuated to the Pisam polyclinic.
Amadou Gon Coulibaly was 61 years old. He had gone to the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris at the beginning of May for medical follow-up following a heart transplant 8 years ago. Amadou Gon Coulibaly had stayed two months in France. He had been given a stent, among other things. He was hospitalized twice and observed a lot of rest.
He was back last Friday in Abidjan. Welcomed with great splendor by President Ouattara himself, the first lady, and a cohort of officials and ministers, he appeared tired, walking slowly.
In a statement to those who had come to welcome him in the presidential pavilion at the airport, he had explained that he was feeling fit and that he intended to return to work immediately, which he did.
A few weeks earlier, in mid-March, the Prime Minister, who had held the post since 2017, had been nominated by the ruling party, the RHDP, as a candidate for the presidential elections scheduled for October this year.
Trained as a public works engineer, Amadou Gon Coulibaly gradually rose through the ranks: he was elected deputy to the National Assembly from 1995 to 1999, then mayor of the town of Korhogo in 2001.
In the president’s entourage, his “rigor”, his sense of “organization” and his “work force” are readily praised. These are qualities that allowed this technocrat to be nominated in a consensual manner as the RHDP candidate for the presidential election of October 2020.