President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday 16 March 2021 left Accra for Cote d’Ivoire to attend the funeral of the late Hamed Bakayoko, Prime Minister of Cote d’Ivoire, which will be held on Wednesday 17 March, in Abidjan.

The Ghanaian leader is there in his capacity as chairman of the ECOWAS Authority, an official communication from the Office of the President said.

An eight-day period of national mourning for the late Prime Minister was announced by President Alassane Dramane Ouattara last Thursday, with the burial scheduled for Friday 19 March.

President Akufo-Addo was accompanied by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway and officials of the Office of the President and the Foreign Ministry.

Akufo-Addo is scheduled to return to Ghana later on Wednesday.

Background

Bakayoko died from cancer at a hospital in Germany last Wednesday.

The 56-year-old had seen his health deteriorate sharply in recent days.

He had terminal cancer and had been hospitalised at the American Hospital in Paris since the beginning of March and was transferred to a hospital in Freiburg, Germany on Saturday, to undergo an experimental treatment.

In recent months, he had contracted coronavirus and malaria.

During his first stay in Paris at the end of January, he had performed a series of medical tests at the American Hospital without any precise diagnosis.