Jacques Joachim Yhombi-Opango (12 January 1939 – 30 March 2020) was 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 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.
Early life
Yhombi-Opango was born on 12 January 1939 in Fort Rousset (now Owando) in the Cuvette Region, in the north of the Congo. He married Marie-Noëlle Ngollo, with whom he had several children.
Career
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 subsequently restored to it. He was a member of the ruling Congolese Labour Party (PCT) and was associated with the party's right wing. 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.
President
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 20 October 1979. Sassou Nguesso announced Yhombi-Opango's release when the former was sworn in for a second term as president on 10 November 1984, citing "the interest of national unity and peace". In September 1987, Yhombi-Opango was arrested in connection with this plot. At the February–June 1991 National Conference, some delegates accused Yhombi-Opango and Sassou Nguesso of complicity in Ngouabi's assassination.
Prime minister
Afterward, Yhombi-Opango was the candidate of his party, the Rally for Democracy and Development (RDD), in the August 1992 presidential election, taking sixth place with 3.49% of the vote. In his native Cuvette Region, he placed second, with 27% of the vote, behind Sassou Nguesso. He allied with President Pascal Lissouba and Lissouba's party, the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS), in the first round of the 1993 parliamentary election, held in May, and after the election, Lissouba appointed him as Prime Minister on 23 June 1993. The opposition contested the results, however, and a severe political dispute erupted, with the opposition setting up a rival government. Yhombi-Opango resigned on 13 January 1995 so that Lissouba would be free to consult other parties in the formation of a new government; he was promptly reappointed as Prime Minister, with a new government—including four members of the opposition Union for Democratic Renewal (URD)—being named on 23 January.
Some members of UPADS who were from Lissouba's own Téke ethnic group called for Yhombi-Opango's resignation in 1996 because they wanted the Prime Minister to be a Téke as well. As a result, Yhombi-Opango resigned on 23 August 1996; Lissouba appointed Charles David Ganao to replace him on 27 August. Following this incident, a civil war began in June, leading to Lissouba's ouster in October 1997; Yhombi-Opango supported Lissouba during the war, serving as leader of the Presidential Majority, and after Sassou-Nguesso's victory, he fled into exile Along with Lissouba and Kolélas, he called for a passive boycott of the January 2002 constitutional referendum.
Yhombi-Opango was sentenced in absentia to 20 years of hard labor for embezzlement in late December 2001. Claudine Munari, who had been Director of the Cabinet, said in defense of the accused that there was no alternative to the deal and that the money was used to pay wage arrears and organize the 1993 parliamentary election.
Return
An amnesty for Yhombi-Opango was approved by the Congolese Council of Ministers on 18 May 2007. He returned to Congo-Brazzaville on 10 August 2007, and a thousand of his supporters were present to welcome him.
Yhombi-Opango and his wife divided their time between Congo and France from 2007 until he died in 2020.
Joachim Yhombi-Opango died on 30 March 2020, at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, from COVID-19 at the age of 81. His son, Jean-Jacques Yhombi Opango, first confirmed his death during a phone call with Agence France-Presse.