With French support, President Alassane Dramane Ouattara is tightening his grip on power, this month appointing technocrat Thierry Tanoh as Minister of Petroleum & Energy, replacing veteran oilman Adama Toungara.
For good measure, Ouattara’s newly-minted Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly managed over the weekend to bang union heads together and end a week-long strike in which about 200,000 officials paralysed government business.
