18 Facts About Abel Goumba

Abel Nguende Goumba was a Central African politician.

Abel Goumba was born in 1926 in Grimari, Ouaka Prefecture in the Oubangi-Chari French colony, which is the Central African Republic.

Abel Goumba was a qualified medical doctor and member of the medical faculty in Bangui.

Abel Goumba was defeated in a political power struggle by David Dacko in 1959 and then became a minor opposition party leader.

Abel Goumba was in exile in France from 1960 until 1980.

Abel Goumba worked for the World Health Organization in Rwanda and then Benin during the 1970s; while in Rwanda, he met his wife, Anne-Marie.

Abel Goumba feuded with all of Central African Republic's presidents until 2003 and was declared by them to be a national traitor.

Abel Goumba's government was formed on 31 March 2003; in its composition it was viewed as a compromise between Bozize and Goumba, with a number of military allies and relatives of Bozize receiving key posts while other posts went to associates and allies of various political leaders and to independent figures regarded as competent.

The National Transitional Council rejected Abel Goumba's proposed programme of general policy on 5 November 2003, saying that the government's objectives, along with the methods of implementing those objectives, were not sufficiently defined in the programme.

Abel Goumba had planned to submit a revised programme on 12 December 2003, but on 11 December, Bozize dismissed him as Prime Minister.

Abel Goumba was a presidential candidate for the fourth time in the election held on 13 March 2005.

Abel Goumba was one of the five candidates initially approved by the transitional constitutional court on 30 December 2004; seven other candidates were excluded, although six of them were later allowed to run.

On 14 March 2005, the day after the election, members of the Collective of Political Parties of the Opposition, including Abel Goumba, signed a petition in which they alleged that fraud had occurred.

Abel Goumba expressed disgust at the manner of his dismissal; he said that he had received no notification of the dismissal and found out about it when it was reported on state radio.

Abel Goumba's view was that transitional institutions, including the Vice-Presidency, were supposed to be maintained until the installation of an elected government.

Abel Goumba ran for a seat from Kouango in the 2005 parliamentary election, held concurrently with the presidential election, but was defeated; his wife Anne-Marie won a seat, however.

Abel Goumba presented the first volume of his memoirs, covering the period from 1956 to 1959, on 14 January 2007.

Abel Goumba died at age 82 on 11 May 2009 at a clinic in Bangui after being taken to hospital the previous evening.