Ivory Coast Opposition Forms Coalition to Take on Ouattara

Thirteen Ivory Coast political figures, including a former prime minister and an opposition leader, formed a coalition on Friday to challenge incumbent President Alassane Ouattara in elections later this year. Ivory Coast is emerging from a decade of turmoil, and previous presidential elections that have been marked by violence and the exclusion of leading politicians. Ouattara, who took office in 2011 following a brief post-election civil war, has steered the world's top cocoa grower to an economic revival and is widely expected to secure a second five-year term in polls due in October. The new political formation, known as the National Coalition for Change, CNC, draws heavily upon PDCI dissidents, including ex-Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny, former foreign affairs minister Amara Essy and Kouadio Konan Bertin, previously the leader of the party's youth wing.