Ivorian Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko died from covid at a hospital in Germany on Wednesday.

The 56-year-old had seen his health deteriorate sharply in recent days.

He had terminal cancer and had been hospitalised at the American Hospital in Paris since the beginning of March and was transferred to a hospital in Freiburg, Germany on Saturday, to undergo an experimental treatment.

“Our country is in mourning,” said President Alassane Ouattara on Twitter.

“I have the immense sorrow to announce to you the death of Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko this Wednesday, 10 March, in Germany following cancer”, Ouattara said, adding, he was “a great statesman, a model for our youth, a personality of great generosity and exemplary loyalty ”.

A transfer to Turkey, where there was talk of the Ivorian Prime Minister undergoing an emergency transplant, had also been considered for last Thursday. But doctors said he was no longer operable.

Bakayoko received treatment in France on February 18. In recent months, he had contracted coronavirus and malaria.

During his first stay in Paris at the end of January, he had performed a series of medical tests at the American Hospital without any precise diagnosis.

Alassane Ouattara went to his bedside visited the prime minister on March 3 in Paris. During a dinner with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, the Ivorian president expressed concern about the health of his prime minister.

Source: Africa New with additional editing by Camcord