Sylvestre Bangui was a Central African general, diplomat and politician.
17 Facts About Sylvestre Bangui
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Sylvestre Bangui rose amongst the ranks of the Central African Armed Forces to become a general, and was away for military training when Jean-Bedel Bokassa carried out his coup d'etat in 1965.
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Sylvestre Bangui served as the Minister of Economy and Finance in 1983 and 1984.
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Sylvestre Bangui served in the French Army between 1957 and 1962, subsequently becoming a second lieutenant in the Central African Army.
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Sylvestre Bangui was promoted to the position of the National Defence Commissar in 1973.
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Sylvestre Bangui was sent away from the CAR by President Bokassa, serving as the Ambassador of the CAR in Canada between 1973 and 1975.
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Sylvestre Bangui was appointed as the Central African ambassador in Paris in 1975.
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Sylvestre Bangui tendered his resignation in October 1978 but nonetheless stayed in post as he had received no reply from the Central African government.
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Sylvestre Bangui stated that he had carried out a fact-finding trip to Bangui and gathered eyewitness testimonies, and could confirm that the children's massacre had taken place, and that a death toll of 100 "would not be an exaggeration".
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Sylvestre Bangui reported that reliable witnesses had told him that Emperor Bokassa had personally participated in the killing of the students.
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Sylvestre Bangui resigned his ambassadorial post as well as his military rank, claimed asylum in France and announced his formation of the Ubangian Liberation Front, an anti-Bokassa opposition group.
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On 11 September 1979, Sylvestre Bangui declared the creation of a Republic of Ubangui and the formation of a provisional government-in-exile from a hotel in Paris, thus placing himself as a potential successor to Bokassa.
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Sylvestre Bangui was known to be close to Jacques Chirac, a rival of Giscard.
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Sylvestre Bangui resigned his post in protest after Dacko dismissed Prime Minister Bernard Ayandho, who had been opposing him.
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Sylvestre Bangui returned to government under Kolingba, and served as the Minister of Economy and Finance between February 1983 and 23 January 1984.
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Sylvestre Bangui was dismissed from this post and was placed under house arrest, in which Le Monde reported him as being in 1985.
17.
In October 1992, Sylvestre Bangui decided to put himself forward as a candidate for the upcoming presidential election, but as he did not deposit the mandatory application fee of 5 million francs, his candidacy was never registered.