All eyes on Hamed Bakayoko's widow as she manages his estate

摘要

The great and the good of Ivory Coast and beyond are showing a keen interest in how Yolande Tanoh- Bakayoko is consolidating her late husband's nebulous Ivorian and European investments. Since the sudden death on 10 March of prime minister Hamed Bakayoko, his widow, Yolande Tanoh-Bakayoko has not been short of company. Ivorian first lady Dominique Ouattara has telephoned her on numerous occasions, as has her Congolese counterpart Antoinette Sassou Nguesso, who visited her in Abidjan late last month. Bakayoko and Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso, both senior Freemasons, were close. Laurent Souquière, the French consul general in Abidjan, who was also very close to Bakayoko, visited the widow on the evening of 2 June in the company of M'Jid el-Guerrad, a member of France's National Assembly for one of its 11 foreign constituencies.