An economist by profession, he worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF)[1] and the Central Bank of West African States (French: Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, BCEAO), and was the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire from November 1990 to December 1993, appointed to that post by then-President Félix Houphouët-Boigny.

[6] He is a descendant on his father's side of the Muslim rulers of Burkina Faso, then part of the Kong Empire—also known as the Wattara (Ouattarra) Empire.

[1] In April 1990, the IMF under the Structural Adjustment Program forced the Ivorian president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, to accept Ouattara as Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committee for Coordination of the Stabilization and Economic Recovery Programme of Côte d'Ivoire.

He subsequently became Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire on 7 November 1990, still under the IMF imposition,[3][10] after which Charles Konan Banny replaced him as Interim BCEAO Governor.

[13][14] A brief power struggle ensued between Ouattara and Henri Konan Bédié, the president of the National Assembly, over the presidential succession in total disregard for the constitution that clearly gave Bedié the legal right to lead the country if Houphouet became unfit.

[19][20] The RDR boycotted the election, along with the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) of Laurent Gbagbo, leaving the PDCI's candidate, incumbent president Henri Konan Bédié, to win an easy victory.

[16] While serving as Deputy Managing Director at the IMF, in March 1998, Ouattara expressed his intention to return to Côte d'Ivoire and take part in politics again.

Ouattara returned to Côte d'Ivoire after three months in France on 29 December, hailing Bédié's ouster as "not a coup d'état", but "a revolution supported by all the Ivorian people".

When asked in an interview about Ouattara's nationality, Burkinabé President Blaise Compaoré responded, "For us, things are simple: he does not come from Burkina Faso, neither by birth, marriage, or naturalization.

[37] The ruling FPI contested the results before the Constitutional Council, charging massive fraud in the northern departments controlled by the rebels of the New Forces.

The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution recognising Alassane Ouattara as winner of the elections, based on the position of the Economic Community of West African States, which suspended Ivory Coast from all its decision-making bodies[38] while the African Union also suspended the country's membership.

[39] In 2010, a colonel of the Ivory Coast armed forces, Nguessan Yao, was arrested in New York in a year-long U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation charged with procuring and illegal export of weapons and munitions: 4,000 9 mm handguns, 200,000 rounds of ammunition, and 50,000 tear-gas grenades, in violation of a UN embargo.

The country was severely damaged by the war, and observers say it will be a challenge for Ouattara to rebuild the economy and reunite Ivorians.

U.S. President Barack Obama applauded news of the developments in Côte d'Ivoire, and CNN quoted U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as saying Gbagbo's capture "sends a strong signal to dictators and tyrants....

[46] In a controversial move in November 2012, President Ouattara sacked his government in a row over a new marriage law that would make wives joint heads of the household.

After the sudden death of Coulibaly on 8 July 2020, Ouattara considered putting forward Defense Minister Hamed Bakayoko, before changing his mind due to alleged links to drug trafficking.

[51] The election of October 2020 was thus boycotted by a large part of the opposition, and saw the reelection of Alassane Ouattara with 95.31% of the votes under a 53.90% turnout.