Issiaka Ouattara, a key figure in the years-long unrest that gripped Ivory Coast at the start of the century, has died in a
New York hospital at the age of 53, associates said on Monday.
![Former I.Coast rebel leader dies in New York](http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/a1907f5ef5bc89dc47782af91c726f79f22d4a4e.jpg)
"He died from illness this morning in a New York hospital," where he had been admitted several weeks ago, Affoussiata Bamba-Lamine, an attorney linked to former rebel commander Guillaume Soro, told AFP.
"One of the pillars of September 19 2002 has fallen," Soro said on
Twitter, referring to the start of a revolt in northern Ivory Coast that split the country in two.