Anicet-Georges Dologuélé, one of the Central African Republic's most prominent opposition figures and a former prime minister, was prevented from leaving the country on Tuesday after authorities refused to recognise his travel documents, citing a disputed claim that he had lost his Central African citizenship. Dologuélé, leader of the Union for Central African Renewal (URCA), was stopped at Bangui's airport as he prepared to board a flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he was due to co-chair a meeting of the African Union Peace Fund — a body he has led since 2018 and has chaired in an executive capacity since 2024.

At a press conference on Wednesday — his first public statement in five months, since the announcement of the presidential election results — Dologuélé said the interior minister had instructed airport officials that he was not entitled to any Central African passport and was banned from leaving the country. He added that his diplomatic passport, which he holds as a former prime minister, had been confiscated by the public prosecutor in coordination with the interior ministry. Dologuélé denounced what he called a clear "abuse of power by the state," arguing that his Central African nationality had already been definitively settled by the Constitutional Council in a November 2025 ruling, which confirmed that no decree had ever been issued stripping him of citizenship and that he remained a full Central African citizen. The Interior Ministry, for its part, stated that proper administrative procedures had not been followed and accused Dologuélé of seeking to portray himself as a victim to attract attention.

The dispute has deep political roots. A court ruled in October that Dologuélé had forfeited his Central African citizenship because he also held French nationality — yet just months earlier, in August, he had surrendered his French passport specifically to qualify to run against President Faustin-Archange Touadera in December's presidential election. Touadera was declared the winner with nearly 78 percent of the vote, a result Dologuélé rejected as "massive fraud"; he filed an appeal and significant sections of the opposition boycotted the vote altogether. The election was also controversial because Touadera was permitted to stand for a third term following a constitutional amendment in 2023. Dologuélé has finished second to Touadera in three consecutive presidential contests — in 2016, 2020, and 2024 — each marred by allegations of irregularities.

The travel ban raises serious questions about the rule of law and political space in the Central African Republic, a landlocked country in the heart of Africa that has endured decades of instability and armed conflict. By blocking a senior opposition figure from fulfilling an official international role — on the basis of a citizenship claim the country's own Constitutional Council has already rejected — the authorities have handed critics fresh evidence of politically motivated persecution. Whether domestic courts or international pressure can reverse the decision remains to be seen.