Justin Koumba

Justin Koumba (born 5 April 1947) is a Congolese politician who has been President of the National Assembly of Congo-Brazzaville since 2007. He was an official at the United Nations and served in the government of Congo-Brazzaville as Minister of National Education in 1992; subsequently, he was President of the National Transitional Council from 1998 to 2002 and President of the National Human Rights Commission from 2003 to 2007.

Koumba was born at Gango in Kibangou District, located in Niari Department. He worked as an official at the United Nations beginning in 1976. During the 1991–1992 transition to multiparty elections, Koumba was appointed to the transitional government headed by Prime Minister Andre Milongo as Minister of National Education on 26 January 1992. He was retained as Minister of National Education in a cabinet reshuffle on 21 May 1992, and was additionally given responsibility for science, technology, youth, sports, culture, and the arts. The transitional period ended later in 1992; Koumba then returned to the UN and became UNESCO's representative for Central Africa and the Great Lakes countries.

Following President Denis Sassou Nguesso's return to power in the June–October 1997 civil war, a National Reconciliation Forum was held in January 1998; at the conclusion of the forum, Koumba was elected as President of the National Transitional Council (CNT), a 75-member body that was to act as the provisional parliament, on 14 January 1998. Although Koumba was a southerner, the CNT was mostly composed of northerners, in line with the political dominance of northerners under Sassou Nguesso. The body, in place from 1998 to 2002, was critically characterized as an "embarrassingly compliant rubber stamp".

Speaking on Radio France Internationale in May 2000, Koumba alleged that former Prime Minister Bernard Kolelas, a political enemy of Sassou Nguesso who was living in exile, was a murderer. He also claimed that Kolelas had prisons built at his home and asserted that he had proof of these crimes. Kolelas denied Koumba's accusations.

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