Pierre Oba

Pierre Oba (born 17 July 1953) is a Congolese security official who has served in the government of Congo-Brazzaville as Minister of Mines since 2005. During the 1980s, he served successively as Director of Presidential Security and as Director-General of Public Security. Later, he was Minister of the Interior from 1997 to 2002 and Minister of Security from 2002 to 2005. He is also a Général de Brigade of the National Police.^[1]

Minister of Mines, Pierre Oba (center) - Validation mission in Republic of the Congo, May 2017

Background and early military–political career

Oba, an ethnic Mbochi,^[2] was born at Ollembé, located in the Ollombo District.^[1] He is a cousin of Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso.^[3] Oba became Director of Presidential Security in 1984^[3][4] and was named Director-General of Public Security on 11 September 1987.^[3] In 1989, he was elected to the Central Committee of the Congolese Labour Party (PCT).^[3][4]

In the early 1990s, when the PCT's single-party rule collapsed and multiparty politics was introduced, Oba lost his post as Director-General of Public Security; subsequently he served as aide-de-camp to Sassou Nguesso.^[5] Along with Colonel Michel Ngakala, he created the "Cobras", a militia loyal to opposition leader Sassou-Nguesso, in 1993.^[6]

Political career since 1997

Oba participated in the June–October 1997 civil war on Sassou Nguesso's side and was wounded in the fighting.^[5] After Sassou Nguesso's Cobra militia returned him to power in October 1997, Oba was appointed as Minister of the Interior, Security, and Territorial Administration on 2 November 1997.^[2][7][8] He was the only member of the government who did not stand as a candidate in the May–June 2002 parliamentary election.^[9] After the election, in the government named on 18 August 2002, Oba was appointed as Minister of Security and Police.^[10][11]

Oba was believed to have been marginalized by Jean-Dominique Okemba, another influential security official and Sassou Nguesso relative, during the mid-2000s.^[12][13] In the government named on 7 January 2005, he was moved to the position of Minister of Mines, Mining Industries, and Geology;^[2][14] the move decreased Oba's prominence.^[5]

Following the death of Jean-Baptiste Tati Loutard, the Minister of State for Hydrocarbons, in July 2009, Oba additionally managed his portfolio in an interim capacity.^[15] He was retained as Minister of Mines and Geology in the government appointed on 15 September 2009, but was released from his interim responsibility for the hydrocarbons portfolio.^[16]

In August 2013, he was probed by French authorities for the alleged role he may have played in human rights abuses during the 1997 civil war.^[17]