As photos started to surface of the Central African Republic’s (CAR’s) new president, his head wrapped in swathes of fabric, following a coup there last week, the world asked, “Who is Michel Djotodia?”
Reports about the man appear to rely heavily on information posted on a blog written by US academic researcher and anthropologist Louisa Lombard, who had spent time in the country while writing her dissertation – although Djotodia had only made it into her dissertation as a long footnote.
That footnote describes a highly ambitious man, an “intelligent guy with outsize political ambitions”, who had spent about 10 years in the former Soviet Union where he married, fathered two children and then returned with “10 diplomas”.
He also speaks several languages.
“Hearing the stories of his ambition during my research, I almost felt embarrassed on his behalf – he seemed like a Jam-aican bobsledder, convinced he’d win gold,” Lombard writes on her blog.
Only one international news report, in the Cameroon Tribune, gives Djotodia an age, stating he was born in 1949 in the town of Vakaga.
After returning from the USSR, Djotodia was a civil servant in CAR, holding positions including tax director and consul in the Sudan.
In 2006, he founded the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity. He was arrested while in exile in Benin. He was freed in 2008, after agreeing to participate in peace talks.
He was a leader of the Seleka rebel group during their uprising in December last year.
Following the peace agreement, signed in January, he was appointed first deputy prime minister for national defence in February.
He had been in his post mere weeks before Seleka rebels resumed their attacks. By March 24, he had declared himself president, in a move roundly condemned by the UN and the AU.
He has since ditched CAR’s constitution and dissolved the national assembly and is reported to be reviewing major mining contracts with South Africa and China.
Sunday Tribune