Congo

Jean-Michel Bokamba-Yangouma, politician

24Jun

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Congo, High Profilers, Profiles

Jean-Michel Bokamba-Yangouma, politician

Jean-Michel Bokamba-Yangouma ‑ a Congolese politician – passed away on 23 June 2020 after suffering from Covid-19 complications. He was a prominent political figure from the 1970s to the 1990s, heading the Congolese Trade Union Confederation (Confédération syndicale congolaise, CSC). He was the President of the General Movement for the Construction of Congo (Mouvement général pour la construction du Congo, MGCC), a political party. Bokamba-Yangouma was from Cuvette Region in northern Congo-Brazzaville. He was the Secretary-General of the CSC from 1974 to 1997. During the single party rule of the Congolese Labour Party (PCT), he also became a member of the PCT Political Bureau in 1979 and was assigned responsibility for party organization. ...

15Jun

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Congo, High Profilers, Profiles

Pierre Lumbi, politician

Pierre Lumbi Okongo ‑ a politician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – passed away on 14 June 2020 after contracting Covid-19 in Kinshasa. Lumbi was one of the founders of the Peasant Solidarity (Solidarité Paysanne) movement, which gained legal status in 1985. The initial purpose was to help the rural masses express their problems, resist forced cultivation of cotton, facilitate sales of their crops and help them find new business opportunities. After establishing a National Council of NGOs, the movement began making political demands, calling for a multiparty system at a conference in Kinshasa in 1991. Lumbi joined the government of Étienne Tshisekedi in August 1992 and April 1993, where he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. He joined the government of ...

Celine Fariala Mangaza, disabilities activist

29May

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Congo, Noteworthy, Profiles

Celine Fariala Mangaza, disabilities activist

Celine Fariala Mangaza ‑ a Congolese disabilities activist died of coronavirus on 28 May 2020.

16Apr

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Congo, High Profilers, Profiles

Gérard Mulumba Kalemba, bishop

Gérard Mulumba Kalemba ‑ a Congolese prelate of the Catholic Church – died on 15 April 2020 due to COVID-19 in Kinshasa. He was 82. Born in Kananga, Mulumba Kalemba was ordained to the priesthood in 1967. He was appointed bishop of Mweka in 1989, serving until his retirement in 2017. His brother, Étienne Tshisekedi, and nephew, Félix Tshisekedi, both served as President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. On 15 April 2020, during the DR Congo coronavirus pandemic, Mulumba Kalemba died due to COVID-19 in Kinshasa. He was 82.

31Mar

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Congo, Noteworthy, Profiles

Joachim Yhombi-Opango, politician

Jacques Joachim Yhombi-Opango, a Congolese politician, died on 30 March 2020 after suffering from Covid-19. He was an army officer who became Congo-Brazzaville's first general and served as Head of State of the People's Republic of the Congo from 1977 to 1979. He was the President of the Rally for Democracy and Development (RDD), a political party, and served as Prime Minister from 1993 to 1996. He was in exile from 1997 to 2007. Yhombi-Opango was born on 12 January 1939 in Fort Rousset (now Owando) in Cuvette Region, in the north of the Congo. He married Marie-Noëlle Ngollo, with whom he had several children. Under President Marien Ngouabi, Yhombi-Opango was Army Chief of Staff (with the rank of major); he was suspended from that position on 30 July 1970, but subs...