Guy Brice Parfait Kolélas
Guy Brice Parfait Kolélas (6 August 1959 – 22 March 2021) was a Congolese politician. Following the death of his father, Bernard Kolélas, he succeeded him as Interim President of the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development (MCDDI), one of Congo-Brazzaville's main political parties, in 2010. He served in the government of Congo-Brazzaville as Minister of Marine and Inland Fishing from 2007 to 2009 and as Minister of the Civil Service from 2009 to 2015. After placing a distant second in the 2016 parliamentary election, he founded a new party, the Union of Humanist Democrats-Yuki, in 2017. Early life and education Kolélas was born in Brazzaville in 1959; his parents were Bernard Kolélas and his wife Jacqueline. He studied economics, obtaining a degree from Brazzaville's Marien Ngouabi University in 1983. Afterward, he continued his studies in France. He received a degree in economics from the University of Besançon in 1985 and a degree in international transport from the Mulhouse International Institute of Transport in 1987. Ultimately he obtained a doctorate degree in industrial economics, specializing in business strategy, from the University of Dijon in 1993. Political background and government appointment Kolélas' father, Bernard Kolélas, was one of Congo-Brazzaville's main political leaders during the 1990s. During the 1997 civil war, Bernard Kolélas served briefly as Prime Minister before he and his old rival, President Pascal Lissouba, were ousted by rebel forces loyal to Denis Sassou Nguesso in October 1997. He and Lissouba fled into exile, but some fighting continued. On 7 December 1997, Kolélas sent his son to South Africa to acquire weapons that Lissouba had previously ordered from Ebar Management & Trading Ltd., a company that sold arms to the government during the civil war. Brice Parfait Kolélas was his father's transportation adviser around that time and participated in negotiations. In Congo-Brazzaville, Bernard Kolélas was convicted of war crimes in absentia and sentenced to death. After eight years in exile, he was allowed to return in October 2005 so that he could participate in the funeral of his wife, Jacqueline. The government then decided to allow him to remain in Congo-Brazzaville and participate in the nation's political life. The National Assembly unanimously approved an amnesty for Bernard Kolélas in November 2005. The MCDDI, led by Bernard Kolélas, signed an electoral alliance with Sassou Nguesso's Congolese Labor Party (PCT) in April 2007. In the June 2007 parliamentary election, Brice Parfait Kolélas stood as the MCDDI candidate in Kinkala constituency, located in the Pool Region. The Pool Region was traditionally dominated by the MCDDI, and Kolélas easily won the Kinkala seat in the first round, receiving 77.46% of the vote. After the election, he was appointed to the government as Minister of Marine and Inland Fishing and Aquaculture on 30 December 2007. At the MCDDI's First Convention, held in Brazzaville on 24–25 May 2008, Brice Parfait Kolélas was designated as the Coordinator of the MCDDI National Executive Bureau and National Secretary for Development Strategies. In that capacity, he was considered the