ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara named a new, slightly smaller government on Wednesday, though there were few changes to major positions, according to a statement read on state-owned television.
The finance, budget and agricultural ministers held onto their jobs but Thierry Tanoh, the former head of pan-African Ecobank, replaced Adama Toungara as energy minister. Trade minister Jean-Louis Billon also lost his post.
Despite a two-day mutiny at the weekend that led to the dismissal of the heads of the army, police and gendarmes, the ministers of defence and the interior both kept their jobs.
The cabinet was reduced to 28 ministers from 35 in the previous government and includes seven new members.
Ouattara named Amadou Gon Coulibaly, a close adviser and senior figure in his RDR party, as prime minister on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Joe Bavier and Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Louise Ireland)
