New disappearance in Ivory Coast, still in full national mourning, a week after the death of Henri Konan Bédié. The party of the latter, the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI-RDA), lost on the night of August 9th, its vice-president Gaston Ouassénan Koné.
Last week, Gaston Ouassénan Koné was at the head of the PDCI delegation, which came to present his “yakos”, his condolences, to the widow of Henri Konan Bédié. The vice-president of the party died in turn this Tuesday evening August 8th, in a private clinic in Abidjan. The causes of his death have not been disclosed.
Born in 1939 in Katiola, in the center of the country, he first had a dazzling career in the army. On August 7th, 1960, the day of the independence of Ivory Coast, he was the youngest of the officers.
A historical pillar
In 1964, he took over as head of the national gendarmerie, before becoming Félix Houphouët-Boigny’s Minister of Security in the 1970s, then that of Henri Konan Bédié in the 1990s.
Since 2000, Gaston Ouassénan Koné had retired from the army and was fully involved in political life. He was successively a PDCI deputy, president of the parliamentary group and then one of the vice-presidents of the party.
His death is a new blow for the oldest party in Ivory Coast, which is seeing another of its historic pillars crumble.