BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Central African Republic’s former prime minister and major opposition figure, Anicet Georges Dologuélé, criticized the confiscation of his diplomatic passport as an abuse of power on Wednesday.

Dologuélé, who served as prime minister between 1999 and 2001, said he was not allowed to board a flight to an African Union meeting in Addis Ababa on Wednesday.

“It was at the airport that I learned I was forbidden from leaving the country after being declared stateless in my own country,” he told a news conference in capital Bangui.

He is on the board of directors for the African Union Peace Fund, a role he has held since 2018.

Dologuélé renounced his French citizenship last year in line with the country’s constitution to contest President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, who ran for a third term last year.

Dologuélé denounced last year’s election as “very far from the truth” and has regularly criticized Touadéra. He won 13.1% of the votes according to the country’s electoral body.

He has since used his diplomatic passport accorded to him as a former prime minister, claiming the government has refused to issue him a new passport.

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