Former Republic of Congo president Jacques Joaquim Yhombi Opango died in France on Monday of the new coronavirus, his family told AFP. He was 81. Yhombi Opango, who led Congo-Brazzaville from 1977 until he was toppled in 1979, died at a Paris hospital of COVID-19, his son Jean-Jacques said.
Yhombi Opango had been ill before he contracted the virus, his son said. Born in 1939 in Congo's northern Cuvette region, Yhombi Opango was an army officer who rose to power after the assassination of president Marien Ngouabi.