Ivory Coast President, Africa’s Longest-Serving Leader, Dies

Africa’s longest-serving leader, President Felix Houphouet-Boigny of Ivory Coast, died Tuesday. He was 88.

Henri Konan Bedie, the Speaker of Parliament, said he had taken over. State television introduced Konan Bedie as the new head of state in line with the constitution, which says the Speaker takes over on the president’s death.

“The constitution confers on me in this tragic moment responsibilities of whose weight I am aware, the responsibilities of a head of state,” Konan Bedie, 59, said in a brief televised address.

“I am assuming them from now. The country will be governed for all Ivorians and foreigners living on our soil. I ask everyone to put themselves at my disposition.”

Houphouet-Boigny died Tuesday morning at his palace in his inland birthplace of Yamoussoukro after a battle with prostate cancer.

Apart from reigning monarchs, only Cuba’s Fidel Castro and North Korea’s Kim Il Sung had been in power longer than Houphouet-Boigny.

In recent days a succession crisis had developed with supporters of Konan Bedie’s rival, Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, arguing that the constitution cannot be applied because the Supreme Court lacks a quorum.

Shortly before Konan Bedie made his announcement, Ouattara’s government said it would ask the Supreme Court to formally certify Houphouet-Boigny’s death and the resulting “power vacuum.”

Ouattara told his ministers to look after day-to-day business as usual.

But Bedie clearly chose to short-circuit that process by acting decisively and claiming the presidency as his.

There was no immediate response from Ouattara to Konan Bedie’s announcement, and the prime minister’s office in Abidjan was unlit and deserted Tuesday night.

Former colonial power France signaled its stand earlier when President Francois Mitterrand addressed his message of condolence to Konan Bedie.

Houphouet-Boigny died on the day Ivory Coast was marking the 33rd anniversary of its independence from France in 1960, when he became president.

Houphouet-Boigny led Ivory Coast to become the world’s No. 1 cocoa producer and No. 3 coffee exporter. But the economy was too dependent on fluctuating commodity prices, and the past few years saw unemployment, crime and corruption all soaring.

The government announced a month of national mourning but did not set the date for the funeral.

Tributes poured in from Africa and Europe and opposition leaders who had condemned Houphouet-Boigny in the past paid homage to him.