Lansana Kouyaté

Lansana Kouyaté ( born 1950 in Koba, Guinea ) is a former Prime Minister of Guinea.

Political career

He studied at the University of Conakry, before he joined the public administration. In 1976 he became an officer of the Ministry of Labour, a year later, director of the department prices and statistics in the Ministry of Economics, where he was responsible for the state-owned enterprises.

1982 Koyateé worked on a rice project and then moved into the diplomatic service, where he was part of the Guinean diplomatic corps in the Ivory Coast immediately. In 1985 he returned to the State Department and was responsible there primarily responsible with the affairs of the Organization of African Unity. Two years later he became Guinea's ambassador to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. He was settled Guinea representative at the United Nations in 1992. There he held the position of Vice President of the UN Economic and Social Council.

In 1993 he was appointed Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UNOSOM II mission in Somalia. In February 1994, he became its first representative. In June 1994, he was Deputy Secretary-General in the Department of Political Affairs of the UN. One of his first tasks was to visit the ECOWAS Member States and to discuss the situation in Liberia. He was strongly committed to the development of regional support for the settlement of the Liberian civil war. A post he held until September 1997 when he was appointed Managing Director of ECOWAS. A post he held until February 2002.

During his time at ECOWAS Kouyaté was awarded among others, the Legion of Honour.

On 26 February 2007 Kouyaté was for a general strike as part of an agreement with the trade union opposition in the country of President Lansana Conté selected from a number of senior business leaders and nominated as Prime Minister. He was sworn in on 1 March 2007. His cabinet was composed of 19 ministers and secretaries of state, of which, however, none of the old government belonged. In May 2008, he lost his post as prime minister.