Alassane Ouattara is the president of Ivory Coast. He has Burkinabe ancestry, which was used by Henri Konan Bédié, the president in the 1990s, to bar him from running in presidential elections in 1995 and 2000. A former economist at the IMF, he came to power in 2010 after an election that sparked a civil war in which some 3,000 people died when his predecessor Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept defeat.
On July 29th 2025 Ouattara, then 83 years old, announced he would run for a fourth term at presidential elections in October, despite the constitutional limit of two terms (he claims to have "reset" this through a constitutional review). His government barred as many as 55 candidates, including Tidjane Thiam and Gbagbo, and deployed 44,000 police and soldiers after banning political rallies. In 2020 his re-election had also been marred by disqualifications and violent protests.
Ouattara remains popular despite his refusal to vacate the top job. He has overseen annual growth of over 6% and largely kept at bay the jihadists menacing neighbouring countries. Foreign investors see his government as a beacon of stability in a chaotic region; he could probably win an election even without excluding opponents.
After the civil war ended in 2011, Ouattara championed the development of Ivory Coast's cashew-processing industry, the country being the world's largest grower. About 30% of the harvest was processed at home by 2024, up from nearly zero fifteen years earlier.
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