In Ivory Coast, after the national tributes paid at the end of the week in Abidjan, the remains of former President Henri Konan Bédié left the economic capital on May 26, 2024, to be taken by a funeral procession to his stronghold of Daoukro, in the center-east of the country, where activists of his party, the PDCI, are invited to pay their last respects this week. Report from the start of the procession.
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With our correspondent in Abidjan, Marine Jeannin
A long line of vehicles is preparing to hit the road this Sunday morning, at 7 a.m., behind the silver-colored hearse parked in front of the residence of the former president, in Cocody. In the street, cordoned off by the police, the family of the deceased, senior executives of the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI) and the activists, transported by bus. “ It is the body of the president who is leaving with his entire delegation, with his family, with everyone! We leave like that for Daoukro. We have a week to finish the funeral, we are leaving with the body to Daoukro », says a woman.
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At 7:30 a.m., the procession sets off. In the neighboring town of Yopougon, groups of activists are stationed along the boulevard. The passage of the funeral procession is greeted by cheers, applause, and tears too, like this activist who planned to follow the procession to the end: “ President Bédié has died. He is our grandfather, he is our great president. We must pay him all the tributes. We cannot let our president go to his final resting place alone. We’re going to say goodbye to the president, goodbye to our old man. And when he is there, only then will we return to Abidjan. »
After Yopougon, the procession stopped in several towns until Daoukro, where it arrived in the afternoon. The funeral will last there all week, until the burial on June 1 of Henri Konan Bédié in the family vault in his village, in Pepressou.
Henri Konan Bédié died on August 1, 2023 at the age of 89. In turn ambassador, minister, president of the National Assembly, “HKB” rose to the highest office in 1993, upon the death of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, first president of Côte d’Ivoire (1960-1993). He remained there until 1999, before being overthrown in a coup d’état.
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