The Owando bishop who chaired the National Conference
The 1991 sovereign national conference declared itself sovereign, abolished the People's Republic, and adopted a Fundamental Act for the transition.
A Congolese Catholic bishop and Jesuit priest who led the dioceses of Nkayi and Owando. As one-party rule collapsed, he was elected president of the presidium of the 1991 sovereign national conference and chaired it. When the conference declared itself sovereign and abolished the People's Republic, he headed the transitional Supreme Council of the Republic (CSR), which replaced the national assembly and steered the constitutional transition.
Also known as: Ernest Nkombo
Activities and affiliations
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1973–2008
Catholic ChurchBishop of Nkayi, Bishop of OwandoMain
Religion -
1991–1992
Republic of the Congo state institutionsPresident of the Supreme Council of the Republic
Government and administration
Career Timeline
- 1973Ordained priest in Brazzaville (Jesuit)
- 1983First bishop of the Diocese of Nkayi
- 1986–1990Apostolic administrator of Pointe-Noire
- 1990Bishop of Owando
- 1991President of the National Sovereign Conference presidium
- 1991Chairman of the transitional Supreme Council of the Republic (CSR)
- 2003–2006President of the Congolese Episcopal Conference
Related historical events
Pastoral work and public voice after the transition (1991-2008)
After leading the sovereign national conference and the transitional Supreme Council of the Republic (CSR), Kombo withdrew from party politics and returned to the pastoral charge of the Owando diocese he had held since 1990. He did not, however, fall silent in public. At the October 1994 general assembly of the Synod of Bishops in the Vatican, he proposed admitting some women religious to the College of Cardinals in recognition of their mission within the Catholic Church, and he continued to remind politicians of the commitments made at the national conference. From 2003 to 2006 he served as president of the national episcopal conference of Congo.
He was known for plain speaking and publicly raised the socio-economic hardship endured by the population of an oil-rich country. He showed himself critical of the government on several occasions, in particular at the funeral of Batantu, archbishop emeritus of Brazzaville, on 4 May 2004. He died after a long illness in Paris on 22 October 2008, aged 67. His public defence of the National Conference's legacy illustrates how a transitional civil and religious leader related to the power that followed him.