Youssoufou Bamba (born 31 December 1949 - ) was an Ivorian diplomat. He served as the Permanent Representative of Côte d'Ivoire to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

from 2010 to 2014; when he was appointed to the position by

Alassane Ouattara Alassane Dramane Ouattara (; ; born 1 January 1942) is an Ivorian politician and economist who has been List of heads of state of Ivory Coast, President of Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) since 2010. An economist by profession, he worked for the I ...

after the latter claimed victory in the disputed

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...

of that year. Prior to working in politics, Mr Bamba received degrees from

Institut International d'Administration Publique The Colonial School (, also known colloquially as ) was a French public higher education institution or Grandes écoles, grande école, created in Paris in 1889 to provide training for public servants and administrators of the French colonial emp ...

and the

University of Abidjan A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

Career

Bamba began his career in government in 1976 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and eventually rose to the position of Assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. In 1980 he began his first diplomatic deployment in the Ivorian embassy to Canada. In 1983, he was moved to the Ivory Coast's permanent mission in New York as Counsellor, where he worked for 5 years. On October 10, 2000, he was appointed

Ivorian Ambassador to the United States The Ivory Coast, Ivorian ambassador in Washington, D.C. is the official representative of the Government in Abidjan to the Government of the United States. List of representatives ''Chief of Protocol'', Diplomatic Representation for the Repu ...

, recalled on and left on . His later career consisted of numerous overseas postings as an Ambassador, in such countries as Japan, the United Kingdom, and Australia. He also worked with the

International Atomic Energy Agency The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology, nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was ...

from 2007 until 2010. During the unrest between President

and ousted leader

Laurent Gbagbo Koudou Laurent Gbagbo
, FPI website . ( G ...

, Bamba described the country as ''"on the verge of genocide"'' and, after peacekeeping forces withdrew, successfully negotiated the use of

UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...

s to patrol the border with

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

. He was fired from his post in the United Nations in March 2015 after the French magazine '

Jeune Afrique ''Jeune Afrique'' (English: ''Young Africa'') is a French-language pan-African weekly news magazine, founded in 1960 in Tunis and subsequently published in Paris by Jeune Afrique Media Group. It is the most widely read pan-African magazine. It o ...

' quoted him as saying that

West Sahara West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

was ''""the one territory that is not yet autonomous in Africa."'' Permanent representatives of Ivory Coast to the United Nations Ivorian diplomats Living people Ambassadors of Ivory Coast to the United Kingdom Ambassadors of Ivory Coast to Japan Ambassadors of Ivory Coast to Australia Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny alumni 1949 births {{Côted'Ivoire-bio-stub