Émile Boga Doudou

Émile Boga Doudou (1952 – September 19, 2002) was an Ivorian politician who was minister of state for the interior and decentralization from 2000 to 2002. He was killed in the failed coup attempt at the start of the Ivorian Civil War.

Early life and career Doudou was born in 1952 in Domaboué, near Lakota, Côte d'Ivoire. A lawyer by profession, Doudou was married and had three children. On December 5, 2000, Doudou controversially showed firearms on national television which armed forces had seized at a mosque.

Doudou was elected to the National Assembly again in the December 2000 parliamentary election. Doudou subsequently remained a member of the government.

At the FPI's Third Extraordinary Congress, held from July 20 to July 22, 2001, Doudou was elected as the third vice-president of the FPI, a newly created position. The uprising began on September 19 with automatic-weapons fire erupting outside a paramilitary police base in Abidjan. "Hundreds" of troops attacked police headquarters and the houses of two ministers. Besides Doudou, at least 80 loyalist soldiers were killed by the rebels.

Gunfire and explosions spread to other parts of the Ivorian capital, including central areas and the suburbs. During this, state radio and television were off the air and the international airport was closed. Soldiers shot at motorists who were approaching roadblocks. This attempted coup came while President Laurent Gbagbo was on a state visit to Italy. Violence continued into September 20 and became the basis for the Ivorian Civil War.

Funeral Doudou's funeral was held on August 1, 2003. His body was moved in a procession from a hospital morgue in Treichville, Abidjan, to the National Assembly, where deputies paid their last respects to him. A requiem mass was held at the Saint-Paul Cathedral in Plateau, the administrative district of Abidjan, and his body was taken to his home town for burial.