Jean Ping

Jean Ping (2008)

Jean Ping (born November 24, 1942 in Omboué ) is a Gabonese politician , diplomat and President of the 59th session of the UN General Assembly .

Life

Jean Ping is the son of a Gabonese woman and a Chinese trader who immigrated from France . His career at the United Nations began in 1972 as a civil observer in the field of external relations and cooperation at UNESCO . From 1978 to 1984 he was a permanent representative of his country at UNESCO.

Due to his diplomatic and political experience, he became Director of the Cabinet of the President of Gabon in 1984 and held this position until 1990. In that year he was appointed Minister of Information, where he was responsible for post, telecommunications and tourism, among other things. He was also active as a government spokesman. From then on he held various ministerial posts, including for mining, energy and water, and was deputy minister for finance, economics, budget and privatization. He was then Minister for Planning, Environment and Tourism, a post he held until 1999 and when he was appointed Minister of State ( Ministre d'Etat ) and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Francophonie .

Ping led several delegations from his country to the UN General Assembly, as well as at many other international conferences, e. B. UNESCO, the World Bank or the African Union .

Jean Ping was chairman of the African Union Commission. The heads of state of the Union had elected him to this post at a summit meeting in Addis Ababa on February 1, 2008. He succeeded the first AU Commission President Alpha Oumar Konaré . In this function he tried unsuccessfully to mediate on December 17, 2010 in the government crisis in Ivory Coast 2010/2011 . On October 15, 2012, the South African Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma became his successor.

In the Gabonese presidential election in August 2016, he lost 48.2% to the incumbent Ali-Ben Bongo Ondimba (49.8%).

Jean Ping has received several national and international honors. He is a Doctor of Economics ( University of Paris I ) and has received honorary doctorates from the Institute of Diplomacy of China and the Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow . He is also the author of several publications.

Jean Ping is married and has several children. Ping has two of them with Pascaline Bongo Ondimba, the sister of his political opponent and President of Gabon Ali Bongo Ondimba . He is also said to have a child with longtime President of the Constitutional Court of Gabon, Marie-Madeleine Mborantsuo . Mborantsuo was Omar Bongo's lover in her youth.

Web links

Commons : Jean Ping - collection of images, videos and audio files

Biography on the website of the UN General Assembly (English)

Individual evidence

↑ Sarkozy gives Gbagbo ultimatum. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. December 17, 2010, accessed May 12, 2011 .
^ Au Gabon, une nuit de violences après la réélection d'Ali Bongo. La Tribune of August 31, 2016 (French), accessed September 2, 2016
↑ Dominic Johnson: Attempted coup in Gabon: The coup that wasn't . In: The daily newspaper: taz . January 7, 2019, ISSN 0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed January 10, 2019]).

personal data
SURNAME	Ping, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Gabonese politician and diplomat, President of the 59th UN General Assembly
DATE OF BIRTH	November 24, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH	Omboué

[FAZUltimatum-1] Sarkozy gives Gbagbo ultimatum. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. December 17, 2010, accessed May 12, 2011 .

[2] Au Gabon, une nuit de violences après la réélection d'Ali Bongo. La Tribune of August 31, 2016 (French), accessed September 2, 2016

[3] Dominic Johnson: Attempted coup in Gabon: The coup that wasn't . In: The daily newspaper: taz . January 7, 2019, ISSN 0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed January 10, 2019]).