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 at the age of 89, according to a close relative and a member of his party.
Handpicked by his predecessor, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Bedie served as Ivory Coast’s second 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 six years later.
Bedie died on Tuesday at the Polyclinique Internationale Sainte Anne-Marie, a hospital in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital and largest city
