Ange-Félix Patassé
| Ange-Félix Patassé | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 5th President of the Central African Republic | |
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In office October 22, 1993 – March 15, 2003 |
|
| Prime Minister |
Enoch Derant Lakoué Jean-Luc Mandaba Gabriel Koyambounou Jean-Paul Ngoupandé Michel Gbezera-Bria Anicet-Georges Dologuélé Martin Ziguélé |
| Preceded by | André Kolingba |
| Succeeded by | François Bozizé |
| 1st Prime Minister of the Central African Empire | |
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In office 8 December 1976 – 14 July 1978 |
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| Preceded by | Elisabeth Domitien |
| Succeeded by | Henri Maïdou |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
January 25, 1937 Paoua, Ouham-Pendé, Ubangi-Shari (now Central African Republic) |
| Died | April 5, 2011 (aged 74) Douala, Cameroon |
| Political party | Movement for the Liberation of the Central African People (MPLC) |
| Religion | Christian |
Ange-Félix Patassé (January 25, 1937 – April 5, 2011) was a Central African politician who was President of the Central African Republic from 1993 until 2003, when he was deposed by the rebel leader François Bozizé. Patassé was the first president in the CAR's history (since 1960) to be chosen in what was generally regarded as a fairly democratic election (1993) in that it was brought about by donor pressure on the Kolingba regime and assisted by the United Nations Electoral Assistance Unit. He was chosen a second time in a fair election (1999) as well. However, during his first term in office (1993–1999), three military mutinies in 1996–1997 led to increasing conflict between so-called "northerners" (like Patassé) and "southerners" (like his predecessor President André Kolingba). Expatriate mediators and peacekeeping troops were brought in to negotiate peace accords between Patassé and the mutineers and to maintain law and order. During his second term as president, Patassé increasingly lost the support of many of his long-time allies as well as the French, who had intervened to support him during his first term in office. Patassé was ousted in March 2003 and went into exile in Togo.
Patassé was born in Paoua, the capital of the northwestern province of Ouham Pendé in the colony of Ubangi-Shari in French Equatorial Africa, and he belonged to the Sara-Kaba ethnic group which predominates in the region around Paoua. Patassé's father, Paul Ngakoutou, who had served in the Free French military forces during the Second World War and afterwards worked for the colonial administration in the Province of Ouham-Pendé, was a member of the Sara-kaba people and was raised in a small village to the northeast of Boguila. Patassé's mother, Véronique Goumba, belonged to the Kare ethnic group of northwestern Ubangi-Shari. As Patassé spent much of his youth in Paoua he was associated with the Ouham-Pendé province and many of his most loyal political supporters were Kaba. After attending school in Ubangi-Shari, Patassé studied in an agricultural institute in Puy-de-Dôme, France, where he received a Technical Baccalaureate which allowed him to enroll in the Superior Academy of Tropical Agriculture in Nogent-sur-Marne, and then in the National Agronomical Institute in Paris. Specializing in zootechnology, he received a diploma from the Center for the Artificial Insemination of Domestic Animals in Rambouillet, France. He finished his studies in Paris in 1959, a year before the independence of the Central African Republic.
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