Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara removes PM, dissolves government

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara removed his prime minister and dissolved his cabinet on Friday (Oct 6), said the presidency’s secretary general Aboudramane Cisse, according to Reuters. However, the reason for this unexpected move was not immediately known.

This comes a year after Ivorian PM Patrick Achi tabled his and his government’s resignation but was later re-appointed. This time around, Achi and all the other ministers have been removed from their posts by the presidential decree.

What do we know so far?

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“The president expresses his gratitude to Prime Minister Patrick Achi and to all members of the government for their commitment to serving the nation over the past years,” said Cisse, as quoted by Reuters.

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It is not uncommon for presidents of the nation of 29.3 million people to make such drastic and unexpected changes to their government.

The ministers will temporarily remain in charge until a new prime minister and government are appointed.

The West African nation will hold a presidential election in 2025.Ouattara, who was re-elected as the president in 2020, has not yet said whether he will run again.

The incumbent president has been in power since his predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo, was forcibly ousted after he refused to accept Ouattara’s internationally recognised victory in the November 2010 presidential election.

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Ouattara won a second five-year term in 2015, with nearly 84 per cent of votes, in an election which was said to be valid as per observers from the United States.

However, in 2020, the opposition boycotted the poll in protest after they called Ouattara’s third term unconstitutional.

‘Re-appointed’

Though Achi had tabled his resignation in April last year after Ouattara’s plans to reduce the size of the cabinet, he was re-appointed a week later.

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The 67-year-old was appointed prime minister in March 2021 as the third PM in the West African state in the last three years following the deaths of Amadou Gon Coulibaly and Hamed Bakayoko, who both passed away in 2020.

(With inputs from agencies)

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