Former Ivory Coast foreign minister and veteran diplomat Amara Essy, who was often mistaken for football legend Pele during his stint in Brazil, has died aged 80, state television said Tuesday.Essy was a confidant of Ivory Coast’s founder president Felix Houphouet-Boigny and served as foreign minister during the entire 1990s.He was also general secretary of the Organisation of African Unity, now rebaptised the African Union. His diplomatic career began in the 1970s in Brazil and he went on to occupy top diplomatic posts at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva.He fielded himself as a candidate in presidential elections in October 2015 but withdrew from the race three weeks before the vote.
