LAGOS APRIL 6TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara has confirmed his younger brother Tene Birahima Ouattara as minister of defence, part of a slate of new appointments announced on Tuesday. The new defence minister will have to contend with Islamist violence spilling over from Burkina Faso in the north, and continue reforms that have calmed…
LAGOS MARCH 10TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Ivory Coast Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko, who was seen as a possible successor to President Alassane Ouattara, has died in Freiburg in southwestern Germany, two days after his 56th birthday, the government said on Wednesday. A former media executive who turned to politics, Bakayoko acted as a negotiator and intermediary between warring…
LAGOS AUGUST 7TH (NEWSRANGERS)– Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said on Thursday he would seek re-election in October, formally accepting the ruling party’s nomination to be its candidate and defying opponents who say the constitution forbids a third term. Ouattara, who has governed since 2011, said in March he would not run again. But his…
LAGOS JULY 23RD (NEWSRANGERS)-West African leaders were in talks in Bamako on Thursday in a fresh push to end an escalating political crisis in the fragile state of Mali. In an exceptional one-day summit, the presidents of Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Niger were meeting Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and leaders of a…