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Ivory Coast's Ouattara slims down government in modest reshuffle
Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara poses for a picture with his newly formed government, including vice-president Daniel Kablan Duncan and Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, at the presidential palace in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, January 11, 2017. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon
11/01/2017
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara named a new and smaller government team on Wednesday, with few changes to top positions, according to a statement read on state-owned television.
Adama Kone and Abdourahmane Cisse - finance and budget ministers respectively - held onto their jobs, as did Agriculture Minister Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly.
But Thierry Tanoh, the former CEO of pan-African Ecobank, replaced Adama Toungara as energy minister. Amadou Kone takes over as transport minister from Gaoussou Toure. Trade minister Jean-Louis Billon also lost his post.
Marcel Amon-Tanoh, who was appointed interim foreign affairs minister when Albert Toikeusse Mabri was dismissed in November, will keep that post in the new cabinet.
Despite a two-day mutiny at the weekend that led to the dismissal of the heads of the army, police and gendarmes, Defence Minister Alain-Richard Donwahi and Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko both kept their jobs also.
The new cabinet has 28 ministers and a secretary of state compared with 35 posts previously. It includes seven new members.
Ouattara named Amadou Gon Coulibaly, a close adviser and senior figure in his RDR party, as prime minister on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Joe Bavier and Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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