Central African Republic country brief - November 2011

Context

Political History

1960 CAR independent from France on 13 August. David Dacko, Minister of the Interior, forces parliament to elect him as first president.

1964 Dacko, candidate of single party established in 1962, wins first elections.

1965 Colonel Jean-Bedel Bokassa, former captain of the French army, takes power in a bloody coup over a weak Dacko on 31 December with a mission to eradicate corruption and improve the economy.

1979 Apr – Support to Bokassa weakens after “Ngaragba massacre,” when 250 students demonstrating in Bangui were beaten and thrown into Ngaragba prison, where dozens died. 20 Sep – Bokassa overthrown; Dacko put back into power.
French army forced to secure Bangui following demonstrations of discontent.

1981 Dacko wins elections over Ange-Felix Patassé, leader of the Movement for the Liberation of the CAR (MLPC), however, unconfident he hands power to the Military Committee for National Recovery (CRMN) headed by General André Kolingba, the Central African Armed Force’s (FACA) Chief of Staff.

1982 Two attempted coups blocked; one by Patassé and one by François Bozizé and Alphonse Mbaïkoua. Bozizé flees to Chad and Mbaïkoua to Markounda, north CAR.