Pascal Lissouba (15 November 1931-24 August 2020) was Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo from 24 December 1963 to 15 April 1966, succeeding Alphonse Massamba-Debat and preceding Ambroise Noumazalaye; he served as President of the Congo from 31 August 1992 to 25 October 1997, succeeding Denis Sassou Nguesso and preceding Nguesso. The leader of the UPADS party, Lissouba was overthrown after the Republic of the Congo Civil War.
Biography[]
Pascal Lissouba was born in Tsinguidi, French Congo on 15 November 1931, and he was educated in Tunisia and France. Lissouba worked in the Department of Agriculture of the Republic of the Congo from 1961 to 1963, and he served as both Minister of Agriculture and Prime Minister from 1963 to 1966 under President Alphonse Massamba-Debat. After Massamba-Debat's 1968 overthrow, Lissouba remained in Marien Ngouabi's government, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1977 for his involvement in Ngouabi's murder. From 1979 to 1990, Lissouba went into exile in France, and he returned to the Congo to lead the liberal UPADS party. In 1992, Lissouba was elected President of the Congo, and he was accused of rigging the elections; fighting broke out between Lissouba and rival militants during the early 1990s. In 1997, the Republic of the Congo Civil War broke out when Denis Sassou Nguesso's communist rebels began an uprising, and Lissouba was deposed in 1997. Lissouba went into exile in London, United Kingdom, and he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in absentia for treason and corruption. He died of Alzheimer's disease in Perpignan, France in 2020 at the age of 88.