Abel Nguéndé Goumba (French pronunciation: [abɛl gumba]; 18 September 1926 – 11 May 2009) was a Central African politician.

[3] Dacko won the ensuing power struggle in 1959 and dismissed Goumba as Minister of Finance; he went on to become the independent country's first president.

In 1960, Goumba and Pierre-Faustin Maleombho [fr] went on to found a small opposition party, the Mouvement d'évolution démocratique de l'Afrique centrale (MEDAC).

Goumba, along with two close associates, was sentenced to life imprisonment in February 1962 by the Supreme Court, which still consisted entirely of French magistrates.

[7][8] When handpicking a successor to Bokassa, France immediately discarded Goumba due to his perceived Marxist ideas and his revolutionary past.

When voices in the CAR were raised for the return of Goumba, the French right-wing press launched a campaign against him, painting him as an agent of the Soviet Union.

Reminiscing about this era, American ambassador Robert Gribbin described Goumba as "more of a '60s style revolutionary than anyone else" in the political landscape at the time.

[citation needed] In the 1999 election he did poorly by comparison, taking only 6,56% of the vote and placing fourth, behind Patassé, Kolingba and Dacko.

[22] On 14 March 2005, the day after the election, members of the Collective of Political Parties of the Opposition (CPPO), including Goumba, signed a petition in which they alleged that fraud had occurred.

Goumba's view was that transitional institutions, including the Vice-Presidency, were supposed to be maintained until the installation of an elected government.