Jean-Luc Mandaba

Jean-Luc Mandaba (15 August 1943 – 22 October 2000) was Prime Minister of the Central African Republic from 25 October 1993 to 12 April 1995 under President Ange-Félix Patassé.

Biography Mandaba was born on 15 August 1943 in Bangui. He received his primary education in Bangui. After his primary school certificate, he attended the St Marcel Sibut school and studied at Fort Archambault (Chad) and College Emile Gentil in Bangui. He studied nursing in Brazzaville and received a diploma in 1963. He joined the civil service as a sanitary hygiene inspector in 1965. Mandaba served in the military in Brazzaville from 1965 to 1966 before continuing his medical studies at the Joint faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Nantes and Rennes Medical school in France where he obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1972. He then specialized in surgery and obtained a general surgery degree from the University of Paris VI in 1976.

He returned to the Central African Republic and established a pediatric service at the National Hospital in Bangui. He won acclaim as a surgeon and was appointed Minister of Health in 1980, serving until 1981. He became Professor of Pediatric Surgery in 1983. In 1986, he became head of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University Hospital. Mandaba was also involved in several important sports positions. From 1995 to his death he was Chairman of the Board of the Central African Sugar Management Company (SOGESCA). After the second army mutiny of 1996, he and Jean Serge Ouafio set up the 'Karako' militia forces, which Patassé then brought into the military to balance the predominance of southern Yakoma in the armed forces inherited from the Kolingba era.