Raymond Ramazani Baya is a politician from the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

. He served as the foreign minister

Foreign minister

A Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...

 of that country under the transitional government following his appointment to that post on July 23, 2004, by vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba

Jean-Pierre Bemba

Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo is a politician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was one of four vice-presidents in the transitional government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 17 July 2003 to December 2006. Bemba also leads the Movement for the Liberation of Congo , a rebel group...

, who was allowed to appoint the foreign minister.

Ramazani was a long-time member of the regime of President Mobutu, most prominently as Minister of Information and as Ambassador to France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

After the fall of Mobutu a year later, in 1997, Ramazani became dissatisfied with the new government of Laurent Kabila

Laurent-Désiré Kabila

Laurent-Désiré Kabila was President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from May 17, 1997, when he overthrew Mobutu Sese Seko, until his assassination by his bodyguards on January 18, 2001...

. He joined the Movement for the Liberation of Congo

Movement for the Liberation of Congo

The Movement for the Liberation of the Congo is a political party in Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was a rebel group operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo that fought the government throughout the Second Congo War. It subsequently took part in the transitional government and is now...

, a rebel group based in Gbadolite

Gbadolite

Gbadolite or Gbado-Lite is the capital of the Nord-Ubangi District in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The town is located south of the Ubangi River at the border to the Central African Republic and northeast of the national capital Kinshasa...

 which was led by Jean-Pierre Bemba. In 2003 the group entered into a transitional government with other rebel groups and the Joseph Kabila

Joseph Kabila

Joseph Kabila Kabange is a Congolese politician who has been President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since January 2001. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila...

 government. Bemba became a vice-president and, among other things, was able to appoint the foreign minister. Antoine Ghonda

Antoine Ghonda

Antoine Ghonda Mangalibi was the foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from June 30, 2003 until July 23, 2004....

 became foreign minister, but Ramazani was by this time an important advisor on diplomacy to Bemba. He became foreign minister in 2004 when Ghonda was sacked. His time in that post ended in February 2007, at the beginning of President Joseph Kabila’s second term, when the government of Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga

Antoine Gizenga

Antoine Gizenga is a Congolese politician who was Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from December 30, 2006 to 10 October 2008...

took office.