20120605
AFP
Ivory Coast's president, the head of the ECOWAS west African regional bloc, on Monday named his ambassador to France as minister of African integration and mediator in the crises in coup-hit Mali and Guinea-Bissau.

Ambassador Ally Coulibaly succeeds Adama Bictogo, who was sacked in May for allegedly siphoning off funds meant to compensate victims of toxic waste dumping in 2006 off Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan.

Coulibaly, 61, is a former journalist and a close aide of Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, who finally took power last year after a military operation rounded up veteran strongman Laurent Gbagbo, who had refused to accept his defeat in parliamentary elections.

The Economic Community of West African States is trying to broker an end to the political crises in Mali -- which has been effectively sliced in two after a putsch -- and in impoverished Guinea-Bissau, which suffered a coup in April.