Former Ivory Coast President Henri Konan Bedie, part of an old guard of politicians who dominated politics in the West African nation for a generation, has died, aged 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.
It is not clear how Bedie died.
His spokesman could not be reached for comment.
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He was long remembered – and in some parts reviled – for his role in promoting the issue of “ivoirite”, or Ivorian identity.
The issue 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.
The son of a low-income farmer, 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.
