Central African Republic rebels 'enter capital Bangui'

[Reashot Xigwin]

Rebels in the Central African Republic are reported to be marching on the Presidential Palace

Hundreds of rebels have entered the Central African Republic (CAR) capital Bangui, according to witnesses.

Seleka rebels were said to be fighting running battles with government troops.

The fighters, who have been involved in an on-off rebellion since December, accuse President Francois Bozize of failing to honour a peace deal.

Former colonial power France has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, and reportedly sent troops to secure the airport.

French officials warned French nationals in the country should stay at home.

Rebel spokesman Nelson Ndjadder said they had shot down a government military helicopter and were now heading for the presidential palace.

Central African Republic

However, there were no further reports of fighting as darkness fell.

The rebels are also said to have cut off electrical power to parts of the city, having taken control of three power plants in the neighbouring town of Boali.

A local UN official in southern Bangui said people were in a state of panic but could not confirm the rebels had entered the city.

The rebels joined a power-sharing government in January after talks brokered by regional leaders to end a rebellion they launched last year.

But the deal quickly collapsed, with the rebels saying their demands, including the release of political prisoners, had not been met.

On Friday it was reported that they had taken a checkpoint in the town of Damara, about an hour's drive from Bangui, where regional Fomac peacekeepers are based.

BBC Africa editor Richard Hamilton says government soldiers have been unable to fend off the rebels because Mr Bozize fears being overthrown in a coup and is therefore wary of having a strong army.

He came to power himself in a military coup in 2003.

CAR has been hit by a series of rebellions since independence from France in 1960.

It is one of the poorest countries in Africa, despite its considerable mineral resources.

BBC News - Central African Republic rebels 'enter capital Bangui'

At first I was sure the Rebel won't get anywhere near the Capital, but when I check the net & this story pops up. All I can say is WTF!

 

[Reashot Xigwin]

French troops secure CAR capital airport
Paris also calls for emergency UN Security Council meeting after rebels attacked Central African Republic's Bangui.
Last Modified: 23 Mar 2013 23:39


France has sent soldiers to Central African Republic to secure the airport of the capital Bangui, a diplomatic source said, after rebel forces entered the north of the city.

"A company of troops has been sent to secure the airport. The airport is now secure," said the source on Saturday. "We have asked our citizens to remain at home. For the time being, there is nothing to be worried about. There is no direct threat to our citizens at the moment."

A second diplomatic source said that Paris had requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss a
solution to the crisis in the landlocked former French colony at the heart of Africa.

Nelson Ndjadder, a spokesman for the Seleka rebel coalition, said earlier on Saturday that his fighters entered the capital and were heading to the presidential palace in the centre of town.

He also said they had shot down a government military helicopter which had been attacking their forces since Friday.

The Seleka rebels resumed hostilities this week in the mineral-rich former French colony, vowing to topple
President Francois Bozize whom it accuses of breaking a January peace agreement to integrate its fighters into the army.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Bangui, Central African Republic's Deputy Prime Minister Parfait Mbaye, said the rebel advance "should be condemned by the African union".

"The coup d’etat attempt by Seleka rebels is still ongoing. Fighting is now taking place on the outskirts of Bangui. We can only condemn this attempt to take power by force... We are very sorry to see what is happening in our country."

The rebels are said to have driven back government forces and taken control of the neighbourhood around Bozize's private residence. Officials said Bozize was in the presidential palace in the town centre.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Bangui, Sylvain Groulx of Doctors without Borders, said the fighting has not yet reached to centre of the capital.

"We are about two-to-three kilometres from the centre of Bangui and we cannot hear any shooting but we have heard the same information that a group of rebels has entered the capital," Groulx said.

"There has been some fighting in different places in and around Bangui throughout the day," Groulx added.

"It seems that the rebels have taken control of a town called bouali where there is a hydro-electric dam, the main power source for Bangui. All the power in the capital was cut. The hospitals we are supporting have been provided with fuel for generators."

South African troops

The violence is the latest in a series of rebel incursions, clashes and coups that have plagued the landlocked nation in the heart of Africa since its independence from France in 1960.

Pretoria has sent some 400 soldiers to train Bozize's army, joining hundreds of peacekeepers from the Central African regional bloc.

Regional peacekeeping sources said the South Africans had fought alongside the Central African Republic's army.

"I don't understand why we are making such a big deal about the presence of South African troops," Mbaye told Al Jazeera.

"We have an agreement with South Africa, a member of the African union and they are currently helping Central African forces. We salute South African forces and the South African people."

State radio announced late on Friday that South Africa would boost its troop presence after Bozize met his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma in Pretoria.

Captain Zamo Sithole, senior operations communications officer at South Africa's National Defence Force said: "We are there in the CAR to protect our properties there, and our troops there."

A South African Defence Ministry spokesman declined to comment.

French troops secure CAR capital airport - Africa - Al Jazeera English

 

[Reashot Xigwin]

Central African Republic capital falls to rebels, Bozize flees

Central African Republic president Francois Bozize speaks during a news conference at the presidential palace in Bangui January 8, 2013. REUTERS/Luc Gnago

By Paul-Marin Ngoupana

BANGUI | Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:51am EDT

(Reuters) - Rebels in Central African Republic seized control of the country's riverside capital Bangui on Sunday, forcing President Francois Bozize to flee into neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, government officials said.

At least six South African soldiers were killed in clashes with the rebels, a Reuters witness said. A United Nations source said the force, in the country to train the army along with hundreds of regional peacekeepers, was preparing to leave.

The Seleka rebel coalition resumed hostilities this week in the mineral-rich former French colony, vowing to oust Bozize, whom it accused of breaking a January peace agreement to integrate its fighters into the army.

The landlocked country, racked by rural rebellions for more than a decade, has extensive and unprotected borders and the rebel advance added to instability in the heart of Africa.


As the loose coalition of rebels - some of them former rivals - tightened their grip on Bangui, it was unclear who would replace Bozize or whether the power-sharing government of Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye would remain in place.

"The rebels control the town," said presidency spokesman Gaston Mackouzangba. "I hope there will not be any reprisals."

Government spokesman Crepin Mboli-Goumba said the Seleka rebels controlled all the strategic locations in the city.

A presidential advisor, who asked not to be named, said Bozize had crossed the Oubangi river into Congo on Sunday morning as rebel forces headed for the presidential palace. Bozize had seized power in a 2003 military coup.

A United Nations official in Congo said Kinshasa's government asked the U.N. refugee agency to help move 25 members of Bozize's family out of the border town of Zongo on Sunday.

Congo's Information Minister Lambert Mende told Reuters President Bozize was not among the family members who arrived in Zongo and said his arrival in the country had not been announced to Congolese authorities.

"The palace has just fallen. We have the palace," Eric Massi, a Seleka spokesman, told Reuters by telephone from Paris.

SOUTH AFRICANS ATTACKED

The rebels fought their way to the northern suburbs of the riverside capital late on Saturday before an overnight lull in the fighting. But residents said heavy weapons fire erupted across Bangui around 8 a.m. (2.00 a.m. ET).

Massi said the rebels had broken through a line of South African soldiers during their push into the city.

Around 400 South African troops are currently in the country. "I saw the bodies of six South African soldiers. They had all been shot. Their vehicles were also destroyed. Other South African soldiers came to recover the bodies," a Reuters witness said.

Regional peacekeeping sources said the South Africans had fought alongside the Central African Republic's army on Saturday.

"I cannot confirm that we were fighting alongside (the CAR army) but we fell under attack and we defended ourselves and we repulsed the attackers," South African army spokesman Brigadier-General Xolani Mabanga told private South African news channel eENCA.

Reached by Reuters, he said he could give no further details of the incident, saying it was an "operational matter."

A source with the United Nations in Bangui said South African troops were preparing to leave the country.

"They took substantial losses and have asked for French support to load their troops and take off," said the source, adding she had heard anywhere between two and 12 South African soldiers had been killed.

France, which already has some 250 soldiers stationed in the Central African Republic, sent in another company of 150 troops to secure Bangui's international airport, a diplomatic source said on Saturday.

Seleka, a loose umbrella group of insurgents, fought its way to the gates of the capital late last year after accusing Bozize of failing to honor an earlier peace deal to give its fighters cash and jobs in exchange for laying down their arms.

The Seleka rebels received several key ministerial portfolios under a power-sharing agreement specified by January's peace deal, and one of their leaders was named deputy prime minister in charge of national defense.

However, rebels and opposition figures accused Bozize at the time of tampering with the agreed deal to secure important ministerial posts for his loyalists.

The violence is the latest in a series of rebel incursions, clashes and coups that have plagued the nation since its independence from France in 1960.

(Additional by Daniel Flynn and David Lewis in Dakar, and Ange Aboa in Lome; writing by Joe Bavier; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Central African Republic capital falls to rebels, Bozize flees | Reuters

 

[Reashot Xigwin]

Central African Republic: Rebels Claim Seizing Presidential Palace in Central African Republic
24 March 2013

Photo: HDPTCAR
Rebel soldiers (file photo).

Rebels in the Central African Republic claim to have seized the presidential palace as fighting intensified in the capital Bangui. It comes as former colonial power France called for an emergency meeting at the United Nations on the deteriorating situation.

Fighters in the Séléka rebel coalition advanced into Bangui after the collapse of a two month-old peace deal drawn out with the government of President François Bozizé.

"We have taken the presidential palace. Bozize was not there," one of the rebel commanders on the ground, Colonel Djouma Narkoyo, told news agency AFP.

He said the rebels were planning to move on to the national radio station where rebel leader Michel Djotodia planned to make an address.

"Today will be decisive," Narkoyo said. "We call on our brothers in FACA (the Central African army) to lay down their arms."

Bozize, who himself led a coup in the landlocked country in 2003, has not been seen since his return from South Africa on Friday and there was no statements from the government Sunday about the latest developments.

There are reports he has fled to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Witnesses told news agencies there were heavy gun battles across Bangui city centre since early Sunday morning.

Gunfire and explosions in Bangui on Saturday saw the streets emptied as local people fled to their homes.

Narkoyo had told AFP on Saturday the rebels were ready to meet with regional African leaders on the crisis, but refused to negotiate with Bozize.

And he warned that if Séléka - a loose alliance of three rebel movements - captured Bangui, it would set up a new government.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye on Saturday called on the rebels to accept talks to "avoid a bloodbath".

Tiangaye, an opposition figure, was only appointed as part of the peace deal brokered between the government and the rebels in January, an agreement that broke down last week.

Paris-based rebel spokesman Eric Massi has said the rebel leadership was urging its forces on the ground to refrain from "looting or score-settling with the local population".

France had not issued an evacuation order, but the estimated 1,250 French nationals in the country were advised to stay at home, said Romain Nadal, a spokesman for French President François Hollande.

There were no immediate plans to send reinforcements to back up the 250 French troops in the country to protect them, he added.

The UN Security Council on Friday voiced strong concern about the rebel advances "and their humanitarian consequences" amid reports of widespread summary executions, rapes, torture and the use of children in conflict.


allAfrica.com: Central African Republic: Rebels Claim Seizing Presidential Palace in Central African Republic


Rebels seize presidential palace in Central African Republic, President flees capital, French secure airport

Hippolyte Marboua and Krista Larson, Associated Press | 13/03/24 5:47 PM ET
More from Associated Press

SIA KAMBOU/AFP/Getty ImagesA picture taken on January 10, 2013 shows Seleka rebel coalition members take up positions in a village 12 kilometers from Damara, where troops of the regional African force FOMAC are stationned. Rebels in the Central African Republic fighting to topple President Francois Bozize seized control of the capital Bangui on March 24, 2013, with the whereabouts of their arch foe unknown.


BANGUI, Central African Republic — Rebels overthrew Central African Republic’s president of a decade on Sunday, seizing the presidential palace and declaring that the desperately poor country has “opened a new page in its history.” The country’s president fled the capital, while extra French troops moved to secure the airport, officials said.

The rebels’ invasion of the capital came just two months after they had signed a peace agreement that would have let President Francois Bozize serve until 2016. That deal unraveled in recent days, prompting the insurgents’ advance into Bangui and Bozize’s departure to a still unpublicized location.

SIA KAMBOU/AFP/Getty ImagesPicture taken on December 30, 2012 of President of the Central African Republic Francois Bozize

Witnesses and an adviser to Bozize said rebel trucks were traveling throughout the town on Sunday hours after the palace was seized. Former colonial power France confirmed the developments, issuing a statement that said French President Francois Hollande “has taken note of the departure of President Francois Bozize.”

“Central African Republic has just opened a new page in its history,” said a communique signed by Justin Kombo Moustapha, secretary-general of the alliance of rebel groups known as Seleka.

“The political committee of the Seleka coalition, made up of Central Africans of all kinds, calls on the population to remain calm and to prepare to welcome the revolutionary forces of Seleka,” it said.

Central African Republic, a nation of 4.5 million, has long been wracked by rebellions and power grabs. Bozize himself took power in 2003 following a rebellion, and his tenure has been marked by conflict with myriad armed groups.

The rebels reached the outskirts of Bangui late Saturday. Heavy gunfire echoed through the city Sunday as the fighters made their way to the presidential palace, though the president was not there at the time.

“Bozize left the city this morning,” said Maximin Olouamat, a Bozize adviser. He declined to say where the president had gone.

The last public news of Bozize’s whereabouts came Friday, when state radio announced he had returned from a visit to South Africa.

Coverseas Worldwide Assistance, a Swiss-based crisis management firm that has contacts on the ground, said it believed Bozize was headed toward neighboring Congo. Bangui is located along the Oubangui River that separates the two countries.

Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende, however, said he had no knowledge of Bozize crossing into Congo.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement Sunday that the United States was “deeply concerned about a serious deterioration in the security situation” in Central African Republic.

“We urgently call on the Seleka leadership which has taken control of Bangui to establish law and order in the city and to restore basic services of electricity and water,” the statement said.

Rebels from several armed groups that have long opposed Bozize joined forces in December and began seizing towns across the sparsely populated north. They threatened at the time to march on Bangui, but ultimately halted their advance and agreed to engage in peace talks in Libreville, the capital of Gabon.

A deal was signed Jan. 11 that allowed Bozize to finish his term, which expires in 2016, but the rebels soon began accusing the president of failing to fulfill promises made.

They demanded Bozize send home South African forces who were helping bolster the country’s military. They also sought to integrate some 2,000 rebel fighters into Central African Republic’s armed forces.

Earlier this month, the rebels again took control of two towns and threatening to advance on the capital.

Elise FOUCAUD/AFP/Getty ImagesThis handout picture taken on March 22, 2013 and released on March 24, 2013 shows French soldiers preparing their gear as French troops arrive at Bangui's airport. France has sent 350 soldiers to the Central African Republic, whose capital Bangui has been taken by rebels, to ensure the security of French nationals and other foreigners, a senior official said Sunday.

Late Saturday, Bangui was plunged into darkness after fighters cut power to much of the city. State radio went dead, and fearful residents cowered in their homes.

An unspecified number of French citizens have taken refuge in the French Embassy, a French diplomat said on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to be publicly named according to Foreign Ministry policy. The diplomat said extra French troops were brought in to secure the Bangui airport.

Hundreds of French soldiers already were in the country, some of whom were sent in to protect French interests in the former colony. Bozize had appealed to Hollande for help, but the French president said he would not be protecting the government. Other French soldiers have been providing technical support and helping to train the local army, according to the French defense ministry.

South African Brig. Gen. Xolani Mabanga, the country’s military spokesman, said there had been “intense” fighting this weekend between rebels and South African forces. “Our base was attacked by the rebels as they were advancing toward the capital,” he said.

“We have suffered some casualties,” he said. He declined to provide the number of casualties, pending the outcome of an investigation.

The peace deal also had created a prime minister post, which was given to opposition leader Nicolas Tiangaye, who had been sheltering at a military base for forces from regional neighbors known as FOMAC.

The United States urged the rebels to “provide full support” to Tiangaye, citing the “continued legitimacy” of the peace deal signed in January.

Krista Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Christopher Torchia in Johannesburg and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/24/rebels-seize-presidential-palace-in-central-african-republic-president-flees-capital-french-secure-airport/