Former Ivorian finance minister Bohoun Bouabré dies

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (PANA) – Former Ivorian Economy and Finance Minister, Paul-Antoine Bohoun  Bouabré, who was facing charges of financial crimes in the post-electoral crisis that rocked the country last year is dead.

Bouabré, one of ex-Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo's key men, died on Wednesday in a hospital in Jerusalem, Israel, of renal failure, a family source confirmed to PANA.

“We knew he was ill but we did not expect he would die so soon,” said a journalist of “Notre Vie”, a newspaper close to the former ruling party, the Ivorian People’s Front (FPI).

Bouabré was minister of Economy and Finance between October 2000 and December 2005. He then served as minister of Planning and Development from 2005 to 2010 in successive governments of former president Laurent Gbagbo.

Cote d'Ivoire saw a brief but bloody civil war when former president Gbagbo refused to hand over to Alassane Ouattara, who had been declared the winner of the 28 November, 2010 presidential run-off by the electoral commission and the international community.
-0- PANA GB/TBM/MSA/MA 11Jan2012