Credit: Wikipedia Commons /   Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire Amadou Gon Coulibaly

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC TIMES

Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Ivory Coast’s prime minister and the ruling party’s candidate for the October presidential election, has died suddenly. The 61-year-old Gon Coulibaly, who had heart surgery in 2012,  reportedly fell ill during a weekly cabinet meeting and was taken to a hospital where he passed away on Wednesday, President Alassane Ouattara said in a statement on national television.   Last May,  Coulibaly was in Paris for medical tests at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. He had returned to the Ivory Coast after undergoing a heart exam in France.  Coulibaly was picked as the candidate to replace Ouattara as president, running for the ruling Rally of the Republican party in October elections.  President Ouattara said he would not seek a third term in office.  Now Coulibaly’s death creates mass uncertainty over the election.  Coulibaly had received a heart transplant in 2012 and had travelled to Paris on 2 May for the insertion of a stent. 

Je salue la mémoire d’un homme d’Etat, de grande loyauté, de dévouement et d’amour pour la Patrie. Il a incarné cette jeune génération de cadres ivoiriens de grande compétence et d’extrême loyauté à la Nation. pic.twitter.com/55QkrrZOr3

— Alassane Ouattara (@AOuattara_PRCI) July 8, 2020

 International Criminal Court Clears Former President Gbagbo To Return Home To Ivory Coast  

Credit:  Credit:  ©ICC-CPI/   Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

The International Criminal Court  in May eased conditions on the release of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo following his acquittal of war crimes charges that would allow him to return to  his home in west-African where presidential elections are to be held October.  The ICC authorized Gbagbo and the former head of the Young Ivorian Patriots, Charles Blé Goudé, to leave Brussels and The Hague, under certain conditions.  Gbagbo and  Blé Goudé were charged with four counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, and other inhumane acts, or – in the alternative – attempted murder and persecution stemming from post-electoral violence in Côte d’Ivoire between December 16, 2010 and April 12, 2011.  Both Gbagbo, residing in Brussels,  and  Blé Goudé, living in The Hague,  have expressed a strong desire to return to their home country.