A. Patassé Dies at 74; Led Central African Republic

DOUALA, Cameroon (AP) — Ange-Félix Patassé, who led the desperately poor nation of Central African Republic for a decade before being ousted in a 2003 coup, has died at a hospital in neighboring Cameroon, officials said. He was 74.

Ange -Felix Patasse in 2005

Mr. Patassé returned from exile in late 2009 and finished second in January’s presidential election. He lost to the current president, François Bozizé, who as head of an insurgent army that seized the capital in a hail of mortar fire had overthrown Mr. Patassé.

Mr. Patassé’s spokesman, Guy-Simplice Kodegue, said the cause of the former president’s death was unknown. Hospital officials said he died of complications of diabetes.

He had been blocked from leaving the country for medical treatment on two occasions and had only been allowed to depart on Saturday, Mr. Kodegue said.

Mr. Patassé served as minister and then prime minister under the former dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa before becoming president in 1993 and winning re-election in 1999.
Opponents accused Mr. Patassé of rampant corruption, and he survived repeated attempted coups as well as military mutinies over unpaid salaries and labor disputes.

Then, in 2003, he was toppled in a coup while outside the country and went into exile in Togo. Thousands of people could be seen ransacking his lavish private residence, shouting "Patassé out!" as the invading fighters looked on.

Mr. Patassé was born in Paoua in the Central African Republic on Jan. 25, 1937, and was the country’s last surviving former president.

Central African Republic has suffered five coups and myriad army mutinies since independence from France 50 years ago.

Despite the nation’s wealth of gold, diamonds, timber and uranium, Mr. Bozizé’s corruption-beset government remains perpetually strapped for cash. Its authority is mostly limited to the capital, Bangui, and armed bandits and insurgents roam the anarchic countryside.