Ivory Coast’s former prime minister Daniel Kablan Duncan was sworn in yesterday as the west African nation’s first vice president, taking up a post created under constitutional changes approved in November.
At a ceremony in the presidential palace, Duncan, 73, pledged to work with President Alassane Ouattara to “help Ivory Coast become an emerging nation by 2020”.
Duncan was named vice-president last week, after he and his government resigned following legislative elections in December in the world’s top cocoa producer.
He was replaced by Amadou Gon Coulibaly as the new prime minister.
Some analysts have said the new vice-president could be well-placed to step into Ouattara’s shoes in the future.
Former rebel leader Guillaume Soro, who was re-elected parliament speaker last week, attended yesterday’s swearing-in ceremony.
Soro has been accused of backing a brief army mutiny earlier this month that stoked security fears in the country.
He did not make any public statements during the mutiny however, and he has consistently backed Ivory Coast’s constitutional reform.
The two-day revolt was worst in the country’s second city of Bouake, the cradle of a failed attempt in 2002 to oust then president Laurent Gbagbo.
That revolt sliced the former French colony into the rebel-held north and the government-controlled south and triggered months of deadly unrest.

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