But Alassane Ouattara also telephoned Malian junta chief Colonel Assimi Goïta with an invitation to make an official visit – just the sort of recognition of legitimacy that Bamako had been angling for...

And at Port Bouët beside Abidjan airport 900 French troops are based under a 2012 partnership agreement which came just after Paris helped President Alassane Ouattara's forces to victory over those of President Laurent Gbagbo in the unrest that followed the presidential election (AC Vol 52 No 18 Gbagbo: France's part in his downfall)...

The conditions for his return had been carefully negotiated as President Alassane Ouattara sought assurances from a man whose identity politics rhetoric used to mobilise southern youth behind then President Laurent Gbagbo at the height of the Ivorian national crisis (AC Vol 63 No 1 Après nous le déluge...

Key to UEMOA monetary strategy Ivorian president Alassane Ouattara would be a powerful advocate for Mali's readmittance to the capital market...

The Malians see Côte d'Ivoire's President Alassane Ouattara as a French stooge unreconciled to their newfound independence of mind and a prime architect of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) sanctions that forced them to reluctantly accept a two-year deadline for elections...

A few weeks later the new French foreign and defence ministers Catherine Colonna and Sébastien Lecornu also dropped in on the Nigérien president who had in the meantime visited his Ivorian and Chadian counterparts Alassane Ouattara and Mahamat Déby and signed a defence accord with Benin...

Relations have been particularly strained with Côte d'Ivoire's President Alassane Ouattara a close ally of France and a hawk on the sanctions issue...

Boly was sent to Abidjan to prepare the ground for Compaoré's return with the man increasingly seen as the chief architect of this plan Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara...

In December 2019 a meeting in Abidjan between President Alassane Ouattara of Côte d'Ivoire and French President Emmanuel Macron resulted in them signing a cooperation accord between the eight members of the Union monétaire ouest-africaine (UMOA) the monetary authority for the West African members of the zone and France (AC Vol 61 No 4 'Eco'-logical concerns)...