Joachim Yhombi-Opango

Jacques Joachim Yhombi Opango (born 12 January 1939) is a Congolese politician. 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 is currently 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 in Fort Rousset (now Owando) in Cuvette Region, in the north of the Congo. Under President Marien Ngouabi, Yhombi-Opango was Army Chief of Staff (with the rank of Major); he was suspended from that position on July 30, 1970, but subsequently restored to it. He was a member of the ruling Congolese Labour Party (PCT) and was associated with the party's right wing. Leftist elements in the PCT claimed in a broadcast on Voice of the Revolution radio on February 22, 1972 that Yhombi-Opango was trying to take power in a rightist coup and that he had ordered the arrest of members of the PCT Political Bureau. This claim was part of an unsuccessful leftist coup attempt led by Lieutenant Ange Diawara. Yhombi-Opango became a member of the Central Committee of the PCT in 1972. He was then promoted to the rank of Colonel and became a member of the PCT's Political Bureau in January 1973. He served as Secretary-General of the Council of State until being moved to the post of Council of State delegate in charge of Defence on November 9, 1974.

Following the assassination of Ngouabi in March 1977, Yhombi-Opango became Head of State. He served in office for nearly two years until being forced to resign in February 1979. Accused of attempting to form a "rightist faction" in the PCT, he was subsequently held in detention for several years by his successor, President Denis Sassou Nguesso. In addition to being placed under house arrest, he was expelled from the PCT and his property was confiscated in 1979; furthermore, he was demoted from the rank of general to that of private, according to an announcement on October 20, 1979. Sassou Nguesso announced Yhombi-Opango's release when the former was sworn in for a second term as President on November 10, 1984, citing "the interest of national unity and peace".

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