Ivory Coast's president slims down government in reshuffle

Abidjan: Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara named a new and smaller government team on Wednesday, with few changes to top positions, according to a statement read on state-owned television. Adama Kone and Abdourahmane Cisse - finance and budget ministers respectively - held onto their jobs, as did Agriculture Minister Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly. But Thierry Tanoh, the former CEO of pan-African Ecobank, replaced Adama Toungara as energy minister. Amadou Kone takes over as transport minister from Gaoussou Toure. Trade minister Jean-Louis Billon also lost his post. Marcel Amon-Tanoh, who was appointed interim foreign affairs minister when Albert Toikeusse Mabri was dismissed in November, will keep that post in the new cabinet. Despite a two-day mutiny at the weekend that led to the dismissal of the heads of the army, police and gendarmes, Defence Minister Alain-Richard Donwahi and Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko both kept their jobs also. The new cabinet has 28 ministers and a secretary of state compared with 35 posts previously. It includes seven new members. Ouattara named Amadou Gon Coulibaly, a close adviser and senior figure in his RDR party, as prime minister on Tuesday.