Dominique Ouattara was received for lunch at the Élysée by Brigitte Macron, in the presence of Mélissa Bouygues and Hélène Arnault, in a format combining informal diplomacy, humanitarian commitments and Franco-Ivorian economic networks. This meeting comes a few days before the Africa Forward summit in Nairobi, in which Alassane Ouattara participated alongside Emmanuel Macron.
The First Lady of Côte d’Ivoire, Dominique Ouattara, took part on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, in a lunch offered at the Élysée Palace by Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, according to a press release from the communications service of the Ivorian First Lady. The meeting was held in the presence of Mélissa Bouygues, wife of Martin Bouygues, and Hélène Arnault, wife of Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of the LVMH group. The press release specifies that the discussions focused on “humanitarian commitments and initiatives carried out in favor of the most vulnerable populations”.
This lunch was held five days before the opening of the Franco-African “Africa Forward” summit in Nairobi (May 11-12, 2026), in which Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara participated as head of state of Côte d’Ivoire, host country of the next 2030 FIFA World Cup in Africa and privileged partner of France in West Africa since Ouattara came to power in 2011.
Dominique Ouattara, whose birth name is Dominique Claudine Folloroux, born December 2, 1953, in Boundiali, in the north of Côte d’Ivoire, is the founder and president of the Children of Africa Foundation, created in 1998. A non-profit organisation under Ivorian law, the foundation intervenes in the fields of health, education and social services in Côte d’Ivoire and in more than eleven African countries.
Among its most documented achievements are the Bingerville Mother-Child Hospital, inaugurated on March 16, 2018 and presented as the largest hospital of its type in West Africa, several high schools of excellence, including that of Kong and that of Sinématiali, inaugurated in May 2025, and the annual distribution of more than 15,000 school kits. In 2026, the foundation made donations worth 130 million CFA francs (around 198,000 euros) to the Muslim community during Ramadan, and is following the construction of a new pediatric cardiac surgery wing at Bingerville hospital.
Dominique Ouattara has received several international distinctions for his humanitarian action, including Grand Officer in the National Order of Côte d’Ivoire (2022), Commander of the Order of Health from the Ivorian Ministry of Health (2023), and the BWF Best Commitment Humanitarian Prize awarded in 2022 by the Better World Fund.
The Bouygues and Arnault families, industrial presences in the Ivory Coast
The presence at this lunch of Mélissa Bouygues and Hélène Arnault is not insignificant in a Franco-Ivorian context. The Bouygues group is established in the Ivory Coast through its public works and construction subsidiaries. LVMH, Bernard Arnault’s group, is present on the Ivorian market through its luxury houses and its distribution networks, in a country where the wealthy class represents a growing market. Neither Mélissa Bouygues nor Hélène Arnault exercise publicly known leadership positions in foundations or philanthropic organisations linked to Africa, and their roles in the May 6 exchanges are not specified in the press release.
