Former Ivory Coast President, Henri Konan Bedie is dead.
Gatekeepers News reports that Badie, who dominated politics in the West African nation for a generation, died at the age of 89, a close relative told Reuters on Tuesday.
Bedie served as president from 1993 until his ouster in 1999 and later ran a losing race against his long-time political rival President Alassane Ouattara in elections in 2020 when he was 86 years old.
He was long remembered – and in some parts reviled – for his role in promoting the issue of “ivoirite”, or Ivorian identity.
The issue fuelled 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.
