Ex-Ivory Coast president, Henri Konan Bedie dies at 89

Former Ivory Coast president, Henri Konan Bedie, has died at the age of 89.

Badie, who dominated politics in the West African nation for a generation died on Tuesday.

The ex-president served as Ivory Coast’s second ever president after independence from France in 1960. He ruled from 1993 until an economic slump and allegations of corruption led to his ouster in a military coup in 1999.

He was long remembered – and in some parts reviled – for his role in promoting the issue of “ivoirite“, or Ivorian identity, which fueled tensions between those who considered themselves natives in the south and east, and the many foreign workers from neighbouring countries long settled in the country’s north.

Bedie remained in politics until the end. At 86, he ran a losing race against longtime political rival President Alassane Ouattara in elections in 2020.

The cause of Bedie’s death was not immediately known. His spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Bedie was born on May 5, 1934 at Dadiekro, 300 kilometres (190 miles) east of the commercial capital Abidjan.

He excelled at school and was among 100 promising students picked in the early 1950s to study in France, where he gained a doctorate in economics at Poitiers University.