Sidya Toure, a former prime minister of Guinea and a leading opposition figure, died in Paris on Friday at the age of 81, sources close to his family told AFP.
Toure had been heading the Union of Republican Forces (UFR), one of Guinea’s major opposition parties, from exile in Ivory Coast. The UFR was among 40 political parties dissolved in March as part of a crackdown on civil liberties ordered by the country’s long‑time strongman, military leader Mamady Doumbouya.
He had been hospitalized at the American Hospital of Paris for roughly two weeks after falling ill in Abidjan, according to the same family sources, who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons.
Born in 1945 in Ivory Coast, Toure entered Guinean politics when President Lansana Conte appointed him prime minister in July 1996. He served until March 1999, overseeing administrative and economic reforms and strengthening ties with international financial institutions. After leaving government, he became head of the UFR in 2000, ran unsuccessfully for president in 2010 and 2015, and lived in Abidjan after the September 2021 military coup that brought Doumbouya to power.
Guinea’s current prime minister, Amadou Oury Bah, posted on X that Toure was “a prominent figure in Guinea’s political life for three decades” and “distinguished himself above all as a pragmatic reformer.” Doumbouya was later elected president in December, a vote that excluded the UFR and the country’s two other main opposition parties, the UFDG and RPG.
<small>Source: Vanguard News — read the original story there.</small>
