Catherine Samba-Panza

Catherine Samba-Panza (Souga; born 26 June 1954) is a Central African politician who served as Transitional President of the Central African Republic from 2014 to 2016.

She was the first woman to serve as head of state in the Central African Republic.

Catherine Souga was born on 26 June 1954 in Fort Lamy, French Chad, to a mother from Ubangi-Shari—later the Central African Republic (CAR)—and a father from French Cameroon.

She moved to the CAR at the age of 18.

She studied corporate law in Bangui, and she then studied insurance law at Panthéon-Assas University in France.

After university, she returned to the CAR in 1990 and began working for Allianz.

She then founded an insurance brokerage.

After entering the industry, she found that corruption made it difficult to operate such a company.

She is married to Cyriaque Samba-Panza, a former CAR government official, and she has three children.

Samba-Panza also entered civil society at this time, working with non-governmental organizations.

She placed particular emphasis on work as a women's rights advocate.

She affiliated with the women's rights group, the Association of Women Lawyers of Central Africa, and with this group she supported women in government, assistance for sexual violence victims, and the end of female genital mutilation.

Samba-Panza has also called for economic support for women in Africa, demanding that African governments do more to further women-owned businesses.

She has said that she was able to escape some of the discrimination faced by women because she "was always a fighter", and she has lamented that many women in the CAR "don't know their rights so they can't defend them".

She was chosen in 2003 to serve as the vice president of a national reconciliation conference, and she was then chosen as president of the subsequent committee to implement the conference's recommendations.

Samba-Panza took her first political position in 2003, when she was named the vice president of a national reconciliation conference by President François Bozizé after he seized power in a coup.

She was then chosen as the president of the committee to implement the conference's recommendations.

Prior to her tenure as acting president, she was the Mayor of Bangui from 2013 to 2014.

Samba-Panza began her career operating an insurance brokerage and working as a women's rights advocate.

She was appointed mayor of Bangui in 2013 after the city was devastated by the Central African Republic Civil War.

Samba-Panza was appointed mayor of Bangui in May 2013 by the government of Michel Djotodia after he seized power in a coup.

She took office on 14 June 2013.

Though she was a Christian, her appointment was accepted by both the Muslim Séléka and the Christian Anti-balaka factions due to her reputation for neutrality.

While serving as mayor, she insisted that she would step down as soon as elections were held.

As the interim mayor, Samba-Panza was tasked with rebuilding the city after it was devastated by the Central African Republic Civil War.

All of the city's funds and supplies had been looted, and much of its infrastructure had been destroyed.

Her strategy to address the city's funding problem included raising taxes and courting foreign aid.

For her work, she came to be known as "the courageous mayor".

She was then appointed to serve as transitional president of the Central African Republic in 2014.

She was tasked with restoring stability to the nation by disarming militant groups, and she emphasized the nation's economic recovery through employment and foreign aid.

She was succeeded as mayor by Hyacinthe Wodobodé, who was appointed on 14 February 2014.

Following an escalation of the conflict in the CAR, Djotodia stepped down after nine months in power.

Samba-Panza was chosen as the interim president, replacing acting president Alexandre-Ferdinand Nguendet.

She was chosen from a list of eight candidates who had to prove they had no links to either the Séléka or the Anti-balaka.

Samba-Panza later said that she accepted the position because she "couldn't stand by and do nothing while [her] country fell into chaos".

Her call for talks between both sides to the conflict was welcomed by the parties.

After beating Désiré Kolingba in a second round ballot 75 to 53, she said:

"'I call on my children, especially the anti-balaka, to put down their arms and stop all the fighting. The same goes for the ex-Séléka – they should not have fear. I don't want to hear any more talk of murders and killings. Starting today, I am the president of all Central Africans, without exclusion.'"

Her term ended in 2016.

She was a presidential candidate in the 2020–21 election, but she was unsuccessful.