Andr%C3%A9 Kolingba
AndrDieudonn Kolingba was a Central African politician, who was the fourth president of the Central African Republic , fromSeptember 1981 untilOctober 1993. He took power from President David Dacko in a bloodless coup dtat in 1981 and lost power to AngeFlix Patass in a democratic election held in 1993. Kolingba retained the strong support of France until the fall of the Berlin Wall, after which both internal and external pressure forced him to hold presidential elections which he lost.
AndrDieudonn Kolingba was born onAugust 1936 in Bangui, the capital of the French colony of OubanguiChari in French Equatorial Africa. A member of the riverine Yakoma ethnic group, Kolingba joined the French military in 1954 and was transferred to the Central African army at independence in 1960. He became a sublieutenant onOctober 1964, a colonel, and then a Brigadier General onApril 1973. As a battalion commander, he was named Technical Adviser to the Minister of National Defense, Veterans and War Victims onMarch 1977 as well as Aidedecamp of His Imperial Majesty Bokassa I. Then he served briefly as the CARs ambassador to Canada replacing Sylvestre Bangui and the Federal Republic of Germany before being named Minister of in March 1979. When Emperor Bokassa was overthrown in 1979 and David Dacko was restored to power by the French, General Kolingba gained Dackos favor and was made Army Chief of Staff in July 1981.
Source: Wikipedia