Simplice Sarandji (born 4 April 1955) is a Central African politician who has served as the President of the National Assembly of the Central African Republic since 5 May 2021. He previously served as the Prime Minister of Central African Republic from 2 April 2016 and 27 February 2019. He also previously acted as the chief of staff for Prime Minister Faustin-Archange Touadera, and the campaign manager during Touadera's successful

Presidential campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referen ...

. Prior to his political career, he lectured in geography at the

University of Bangui The University of Bangui () is a public university located in Bangui, Central African Republic. History Before independence in Oubangui-Chari (later to be called the Central African Republic), most students going on to higher education headed f ...

Educational career

Simplice Sarandji holds a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

degree in Geography from Michel de Montaigne University Bordeaux 3, and subsequently taught the subject for four years at the

, where he also became Dean.

Political career

Previously, Sarandji served as chief of staff for Faustin-Archange Touadera while the latter served as Prime Minister, for five years between 2008-13. The two were familiar with each other from when they were each students. Sarandji also acted as Touadera's campaign director during the December 2015–February 2016 presidential election. After Touadera took office as President, he appointed Sarandji as Prime Minister on 2 April 2016. He named his first cabinet on 12 April, consisting of 23 members including

Jean-Serge Bokassa Jean-Serge Bokassa (born 25 February 1972) is a Central African politician who served in the government of the Central African Republic as Minister of the Interior between 2016 and 2018. Previously he was Minister of Youth, Sports, Arts, and Cultu ...

, Charles Armel Doubane and Joseph Yakete, each of whom had run against Touadera for President. Sarandji elected not to include any members from the Christian and Muslim militias behind the violence in the 2013 coup. As Prime Minister, his security is provided by a Rwanda National Police Protection Support Unit which is deployed to the Central African Republic as part of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

stabilization mission. He subsequently praised the Rwandan peacekeepers for introducing a form of community work in Rwanda called Umuganda into the Central Africa Republic.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarandji, Simplice 1955 births Academic staff of the University of Bangui Bordeaux Montaigne University alumni Living people People from Nana-Mambéré Presidents of the National Assembly (Central African Republic) Prime ministers of the Central African Republic