Former Ivory Coast prime minister Charles Konan Banny died in a Paris hospital on Friday after contracting Covid-19, close aides said.
“He changed my perception of Ivorian politics and of some of its actors,” said Guillaume Soro, another former prime minister who is now in exile.
A member of the Ivoirian Democratic Party (PDCI), French-educated banker Konan Banny became prime minister in December 2005 under a UN resolution. He served until April 2007.
In 2011, after an electoral crisis left 3,000 people dead, he was named head of the Commission for Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation.
The father-of-four had previously held the post of governor of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO).
He ran for president, unsuccessfully, in 2015 against current incumbent Alassane Ouattara. AFP