Brazzaville
– Former Republic of Congo president Jacques Joaquim Yhombi Opango died in
France on Monday of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), his family told AFP. He
was 81.
Yhombi Opango, who led
Congo-Brazzaville from 1977 until he was toppled in 1979, died at a Paris
hospital of Covid-19, his son Jean-Jacques said.
Yhombi Opango had been ill before
he contracted the virus, his son said.
L’ancien président Congolais J.Joachim Yhombi Opango, qui a dirigé le #Congo #Brazzaville entre 1977 et 1979, est décédé lundi 30 mars en France des suites du #COVID19 à l’âge de 81 ans, a indiqué sa famille.#ReposeEnPaix #RIP#ChezMoiAuCongo#RestezChezVous #StayAtHome pic.twitter.com/u26pThm3Ej
— Histoire du Congo (@CongoHistory) March 31, 2020
Born in 1939 in Congo’s northern
Cuvette region, Yhombi Opango was an army officer who rose to power after the
assassination of president Marien Ngouabi.
The troubled, oil-rich former
French colony was aligned with the Soviet Union during Ngouabi’s 1968-77 rule.
Jail, exile
Yhombi Opango was ousted by long-time
ruler Denis Sassou Nguesso.
Accused of taking part in a coup
plot against Sassou Nguesso, Yhombi Opango was jailed from 1987 to 1990. He was
released a few months before a 1991 national conference that introduced
multi-party politics in the central African country.
He founded the Rally for
Democracy and Development party but lost in a 1992 presidential election.
?? L’ancien président Jacques Joaquim Yhombi Opango, qui a dirigé le Congo-Brazzaville entre 1977 et 1979, est décédé lundi en France des suites du Covid-19 à l’âge de 81 ans, a indiqué sa famille à l’AFP.
RIP pic.twitter.com/FfvYpbVElO— RM Le Mollah?? (@RMonunu) March 30, 2020
Yhombi Opango later allied with
elected president Pascal Lissouba, becoming his prime minister between 1994 and
1996.
When civil war broke out in Congo
in 1997, Yhombi Opango fled into exile in France. He was finally able to return
home in 2007, but then divided his time between France and Congo because of his
health problems.
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