Léonie Banga-Bothy

Born on June 18, 1970, married and mother of four children, Léonie Banga-Bothy holds a semi-professional master's degree in Public Law with a focus on International Relations from the University of Bangui and a postgraduate diploma in Diplomacy from the Center for Diplomatic and Strategic Studies (CEDES) in Paris. She is a career diplomat and the first Central African woman to serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

An accomplished diplomat, she has held senior positions in her country, notably within the Department of Foreign Affairs before being appointed Minister from 2013 to 2014. Within the Presidency of the Republic, or in rotation, she has been appointed Ambassador-at-Large, Minister-Diplomatic Counselor to the Head of State, and currently, Minister-Counselor Coordinating the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the CAR (APPR-RCA).

During the political transition in the CAR from 2013 to 2016, Ms. Banga-Bothy contributed at a high level to the implementation of the CAR's post-conflict strategy. She is involved in peacebuilding processes, from electoral processes and dialogues with armed groups, to monitoring peace agreements signed by the Government, up to the holding of the last Republican Dialogue with all the vital forces of the Central African Nation.

From 2003 to 2010, she served as the General Rapporteur of the Preparatory Committee for the National Seminar on Security Sector Reform in the CAR, as the Focal Point for the CAR for the three Counterterrorism Committees of the United Nations Security Council; and as an expert member of the Organizing Committee of the States General of Central African Justice, and as a legal expert at the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region. She is a resource person for UNDP CAR on the issue of small arms and light weapons proliferation, and a resource person on security issues in the Central African Republic's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).

A member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Women Lawyers of the Central African Republic (AFJC), a member of the Network of Women Leaders for Peace in the Central African Republic, and a member of the African Union's FEM Wise group (Women Mediators), she is the Legal Advisor to RRAS. She has also been a member of the "Avocat Sans Frontière de Centrafrique" Association and the Observatory for the Promotion of the Rule of Law (OPED).