Denis Sassou Nguesso
Denis Sassou Nguesso is a Congolese politician and former military officer who has served as president of the Republic of the Congo since 1997. He also previously served as president of the People's Republic of the Congo from 1979 to 1992.
Sassou Nguesso headed the Congolese Party of Labour for 12 years during his first period as president. His daughter Edith Lucie Bongo married Gabonese President Omar Bongo in 1989. He introduced multiparty politics in 1990, but was stripped of executive powers by the 1991 National Conference, remaining in office as a ceremonial head of state. He stood as a candidate in the 1992 presidential election but placed third.
Sassou Nguesso was an opposition leader for five years before returning to power during the Second Republic of the Congo Civil War, in which his rebel forces ousted President Pascal Lissouba. Following a transitional period, he won the 2002 presidential election, which involved low opposition participation. He was re-elected in the 2009 presidential election. That same year his daughter and her husband Omar Bongo died.
Sassou Nguesso passed a new constitution via referendum in 2015 amidst calls for boycott then a dismissal of results by opposition leaders. The new constitution enabled him to stand for another term. Sassou Nguesso was re-elected in the 2016 and 2021 presidential elections with a majority in the first round.
Early life
A member of the Mbochi ethnic group, Sassou Nguesso was born in Edou in the Oyo district in northern Congo, on 23 November 1943. His parents are Julien Nguesso and Émilienne Mouebara. Nguesso was the youngest child in the family. His father was a notable hunter chief in Edou. He received primary education in Fort Rousset, now Owando. He studied in Dolisie Normal College between 1956 and 1960.Military career
He joined the army in 1960 just before the country was granted independence. He received military training in Algeria. In 1962, he returned to Congo and was reassigned to active duty with the rank of second lieutenant. A year later, he joined the Application School for Infantry, at Saint-Maixent-l'École, France whence he graduated with the rank of lieutenant. He returned to join Congo's elite paratroop regiment. He was one of the first officers of the Airborne Group, the first paratroop battalion of the Congolese Army, which was created by Marien Ngouabi in 1965. He commanded the Airborne Group, the army and the Brazzaville Military Zone, and then headed the Intelligence department of the State Security Services. He became captain, then commander, and was promoted to colonel and later as army general.Political career
1963–1979: Early political career
He was part of the 1968 military coup that overthrew president Massemba Debat and brought Marien Ngouabi to power. He was a founding member of the National Revolution Council in December 1968.In 1968, Sassou Nguesso took part in the military coup led by Commander Marien Ngouabi against Debat: He was a member of the Congolese National Revolution Council established on 5 August 1968. Under the leadership of Marien Ngouabi, the group limited the president's powers, before the latter finally resigned on 3 September 1968. Ngouabi officially became head of state in January 1969.
In December 1969, Sassou Nguesso was elected as a member of the first central committee of the new Congolese Labor Party. It was a communist party with a Marxist–Leninist doctrine. It was headed by Marien Ngouabi as president of the central committee, president of the republic and head of state. A new constitution was issued on 31 December 1969, which designated the country as the People's Republic of Congo.
In March 1970, following a failed coup attempted by Pierre Kinganga, a former lieutenant who was exiled in the neighboring Congo-Kinshasa, an extraordinary session of the PCT's congress was held, during which Sassou Nguesso integrated the political bureau of the PCT. On 18 May 1973, Sassou Nguesso, who had been corps commander of the airborne group, was made Director of State Security. In 1975, amid an economic crisis, an extraordinary session of the PCT central committee was summoned. The eight members of the political bureau resigned and were replaced by a restricted "Revolutionary Special General Staff", composed of five members, including Sassou Nguesso, and headed by Marien Ngouabi. At the end of the extraordinary session, Marien Ngouabi asked Sassou Nguessou and five other members for a report on the economic and political situation. The paper became known as the "Declaration of 12 December 1975". It recommended the "radicalization" of the revolution. In the same period, he was appointed Minister of Defense and Security at age 32. On 18 March 1977, president Marien Ngouabi was assassinated. Official media stated that the assassination was conducted by a commando group led by Capt. Barthelemey Kikadidi. Others claimed that the assassination was plotted by military officers within the close circle of power.
A Military Committee of the Congolese Labor Party composed of eleven officers and led by Major Sassou Nguesso immediately took power and repealed the 1973 constitution. Sassou Nguesso acted as interim head of state from 18 March to 6 April 1977, then he conceded his position to general Joachim Yhombi-Opango, who became president. Sassou Nguesso held the position of 1st vice president of the committee, while retaining his position of minister of defense.
Shortly after the Ngouabi assassination, Massamba-Debat and his former prime minister Pascal Lissouba were arrested and accused by a courts-martial of plotting the assassination. Massamba-Debat was executed on 25 March 1977. Sassou Nguesso was appointed provisional president on 8 February, before being confirmed, during a special congress on 31 March 1979 as head of the central committee, President of the Republic, head of state and President of the council of ministers, for five years.
On 8 July 1979, general elections were held and confirmed the PCT as the dominant political force: the Congolese Labor Party won all the seats in the People's National Assembly. A new constitution was adopted by referendum, confirming the socialist foundations of the country.
1979–1991: First three presidential terms
As the newly elected president, Sassou Nguesso negotiated loans from the International Monetary Fund and allowed foreign investors from France and the Americas to conduct oil and mineral extraction.Although he was considered by French diplomats as representative of the radical wing of the PCT and as the Soviet Union and Cuba's man, Sassou Nguessou developed and maintained strong relationships with France on which he relied to support the flagging economy. The French oil company Elf Aquitaine played an important role in the exploitation of Congolese oil fields that led to the doubling of oil production and in supporting Congolese government expenses via pre-financing loans.
He visited France in October 1979 and in July 1981 to seek economic support. In October 1980, high-ranking French political figures, including then-President Valery Giscard d'Estaing and former prime ministers Jacques Chirac and Pierre Messmer, were guests to the celebration of the centenary of the establishment of Brazzaville.
In May 1980 Sassou Nguessou signed a twenty-year friendship pact with the Soviet Union and in the same year sent two delegations to China while a Chinese minister visited Brazzaville. However, the economic impact of these relationships remained marginal: France provided up to 50% of the country's foreign aid while the Soviet Union's contribution did not exceed 1.5%.
Sassou Nguesso was re-elected for a five-year term as President of the PCT Central Committee and President of the Republic at the party's Third Ordinary Congress on 27–31 July 1984, He announced the release of Yhombi-Opango. He served as Chairman of the Organization of African Unity from 1986 to 1987. In late 1987 he faced down a serious military revolt in the north of the country with French aid.
At the PCT's Fourth Ordinary Congress on 26–31 July 1989, Sassou Nguesso was re-elected as President of the PCT Central Committee and President of the Republic, and the PCT won all of the seats of the People's National Assembly.
He introduced multiparty politics in 1990 and was then stripped of executive powers by the 1991 National Conference, remaining in office as a ceremonial head of state. He stood as a candidate in the 1992 presidential election but placed third.
In February 1991, a national conference began; the opposition gained control of the conference. The conference's declaration of its own sovereignty was not challenged by Sassou Nguesso. He was subjected to serious criticism and allegations during the Conference, including a claim from some delegates that he was involved in Ngouabi's assassination.
1992–1997: First Civil War and election campaigns
The first round of elections took place on 24 June, and the second on 19 July. Senate elections took place on 26 July. In the parliamentary election of June–July 1992, the PCT won only 19 of 125 seats in the National Assembly; the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy led by former prime minister Pascal Lissouba, was the largest party. But it could not obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly, with the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development led by former army General Bernard Kolelas in second position.In the August 1992 presidential election, Sassou Nguesso was eliminated in the first round, placing third with 17% of the vote. He fared poorly everywhere except the north. The second round was held between Lissouba and Kolelas ; Sassou Nguesso backed Lissouba, who won in the second round with 61.32% of the vote.
Lissouba became President of the Republic on 31 August and a new Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Stephane Bongho-Nouarra of UPADS, was formed on 7 August. In the meantime, a new alliance of seven parties, including the MCDDI and the Rally for Democracy and Social Progress was constituted. It was soon joined by the PCT, which was unhappy with the distribution of ministerial portfolios, thus ensuring a new parliamentary majority.
On 31 October, the National Assembly approved a motion of no confidence against Bongho-Nouarra who resigned. On 17 November, President Lissouba dissolved Parliament, announcing elections to break the deadlock. In December, Claude Antoine Dacosta was appointed prime minister at the head of a transitional government.
Civil war started in November 1993, when the opposition parties contested the results of the parliamentary elections giving victory to the coalition supporting President Lissouba. Armed militia supporting President Lissouba clashed with Kolelas' Ninjas and Sassous Nguesso's Cobras. The conflict ended in December 1995, but left at least 2,000 dead and more than 100,000 displaced.
After this episode Sassou Nguesso spent seven months in Paris in 1996, returning on 26 January 1997 to contest the presidential election scheduled for July.