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Prime Minister Coulibaly had just returned from France after two months of medical treatment.
Ivory Coast's Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly died Wednesday, leaving the governing party, Rally of Republicans, without a candidate for the October presidential election.
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The country's President Alassane Ouattara said the country was in mourning during statement read on national television by the presidency's secretary-general.
"I pay tribute to my younger brother, my son, Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who was, for thirty years, my closest collaborator," tweeted president Ouattara, who, back in March, had named Coulibaly as his successor for the coming elections, a decision fully endorsed by the Rally of Republicans party.
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
Prime Minister Coulibaly had just returned from France after two months of heart-treatment. After a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, he became unwell and died in hospital hours later, at 61.
His work ranged from Minister of Agriculture from October 2002 to February 2010, secretary-general of the presidency from 2011 to January 2017, and since that date on, he was appointed Prime Minister.
As Coulibaly was his party's leading political figure after President Ouattara, it is yet unclear who will replace him in the forthcoming elections.
Local media outlets claim that Coulibaly's work brought economic growth, stability, and a renewed standing for Ivory Coast on the international stage. At the same time, the opposition argued that the current administration had not done enough to bring the country together.
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