"Rebels near Central African capital" by Lydia Polgreen and Josh Kron |
New York Times Syndication, December 28, 2012
JOHANNESBURG — Rebels on Thursday inched closer to the capital of the
Central African Republic, threatening to topple an elected government
that has had an unsteady grip on power for nearly a decade.
Thousands of civilians fled cities and towns into dense forest as
embassies and humanitarian aid organizations evacuated many of their
staff members from the capital, Bangui.
The rebel group, an amalgamation of several factions fighting under
the name ‘‘Seleka Coalition,’’ is trying to remove President Francois
Bozize, a military officer who seized power in 2003 and has been elected
president twice since.
The rebels accuse Bozize of failing to live up to the terms of peace
agreements signed beginning in 2007 to quell several uprisings.
The rebels have trounced government forces in the country’s central
and northern regions, taking numerous towns and chopping away at the
distance between them and a potential overthrow in Bangui, the seat of
one of Africa’s weakest governments.
Central African Republic is sandwiched between some of the most
unstable nations on the continent: Chad and South Sudan sit to its north
and east, and just south is the Democratic Republic of Congo.
What I remember most about them is they accepted Aristide of Haiti the second time he was exiled.
Caught in the middle of this maelstrom are the country’s nearly 5
million civilians, who have been forced to flee their homes for the deep
cover of the dense forest dozens of times over the past five decades.
“The population is extremely worried, because the rebel advance has
moved quickly in a short matter of time, and the army is moving
backwards,’’ said Sylvain Groulx, head of mission for Doctors Without
Borders in Bangui.
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"Peace plan for Central Africa offered" Associated Press, December 31, 2012
BANGUI, Central African Republic — The leader of the African Union,
Benin’s President Thomas Boni Yayi, proposed a government of national
unity on Sunday to resolve the rebel conflict in Central African
Republic.
Boni Yayi, who arrived in the capital city of Bangui Sunday, met with
President Francois Bozize and then made an appeal to the rebels.
‘‘I beg my rebellious brothers, I ask them to cease hostilities, to
make peace with President Bozize and the Central African people,’’ said
Boni Yayi. ‘‘If you stop fighting, you are helping to consolidate peace
in Africa. African people do not deserve all this suffering. The African
continent needs peace and not war.’’
Boni Yayi said that Bozize had pledged to have an open dialogue with
the rebels with the goal of establishing a government of national unity,
which would include representation from the rebels and the Bozize
government.
Bozize also addressed the conference and said, although he plans to
stay in power until his term ends in 2016, he is not against having the
rebels enter a coalition government with him.
‘‘We’ll probably be able to set up a national unity government. I
apologize to the suffering Central African people,’’ said Bozize.
The African Union’s leader arrived amid fears there would be a fight over Bangui, a city of 600,000.
According to several families in Bangui, members of the presidential
guard have kidnapped people suspected of supporting the rebels, who have
seized 10 cities in the country’s north over the past three weeks.
“We warn the head of state and his family to stop abducting our parents,’’ said a rebel spokesman, Colonel Juma Narkoyo.
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