Former Congolese president Pascal Lissouba died in France on Monday at the age of 88, his Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UADS) party told AFP.

“President Lissouba passed away after an illness,” party spokesman and MP Honore Sayi said.

Lissouba died in Perpignan, southwestern France, he said.

He was president of the Republic of Congo — also called Congo-Brazzaville, to distinguish it from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — from 1992 to 1997.

He fled the country after being overthrown in a civil war by  the current president, Denis Sassou Nguesso, who had lost the country’s first multi-party elections in 1992.