André Nzapayeké (born 20 August 1951) was

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

of the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

, in an interim capacity, from January to August 2014.

Early career

Nzapayeké was born on 20 August 1951 in Bangassou,

French Equatorial Africa French Equatorial Africa (french: link=no, Afrique-Équatoriale française), or the AEF, was the federation of French colonial possessions in Equatorial Africa, extending northwards from the Congo River into the Sahel, and comprising what are ...

. The son of a pastor who also worked as a trader, he was a bright student who received a scholarship to study social anthropology at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

. Nzapayeké worked in Central Africa in the development sector, studying many villages of the country. Later, he worked as a consultant, and also taught at the University. In the early 1990s, he was in the Security Council of the Government. He was briefly Minister of Rural Development under

André Kolingba André-Dieudonné Kolingba (12 August 1936 – 7 February 2010) was a Central African politician, who was the fourth President of the Central African Republic (CAR), from 1 September 1981 until 1 October 1993. He took power from President Davi ...

. A technocrat, Nzapayeké rose to secretary-general of the

African Development Bank The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) or (BAD) is a multilateral development finance institution headquartered in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, since September 2014. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and private companies ...

and vice president of the Development Bank of Central African States from 2010 to 2012. Within the Development Bank, he worked on the implementation of the peace agreements between the various parties during the conflict in Sudan. He also had a job at the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

. He is a Christian.

Political career

He was appointed as Prime Minister in January 2014 during the 2012–14 conflict. His appointment followed that of President Catherine Samba-Panza and the resignation of

Nicolas Tiangaye Nicolas Tiangaye (born 13 September 1956Pierre Kalck and Xavier-Samuel Kalck, ''Historical Dictionary of the Central African Republic'' (2005), page 182.) is a Central African Republic, Central African politician and lawyer who was Prime Ministe ...

. Samba-Panza nominated him for the office, and he too was tasked with leading the country to the 2015 election. Nzapayeké was little-known in the Central African Republic at the time of his appointment. He said his first priority would be to stop the massacres and other atrocities within the country for months as the key step to restoring the writ of the state and then help the one million displaced persons.

I am going to be speaking with the different groups so that we immediately stop certain... atrocities being carried out in this country. We have to put a stop to all that quickly. There's a certain number of very clear actions the government is going to tackle starting this week. willput a team in place that's going to deal with the question of national reconciliation. We have to tackle that quickly, it will make the security question easier. e will seek help fromfriends in the international community.

State radio announced Nzapayeké's resignation on 5 August 2014. The reason for his resignation was the breakdown in peace talks in Brazzaville. He was replaced by Mahamat Kamoun. Since June 2015 he is ambassador of the Central African Republic in Southern Africa, since October 2016 also in New-Zealand and since May 2017 in the Seychelles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nzapayeke, Andre 1951 births Living people Prime Ministers of the Central African Republic People from Bangassou Central African Republic Christians