Rebels extend reach in Central African Republic ahead of peace talks
By Paul-Marin Ngoupana
BANGUI | Sat Dec 29, 2012 11:07am EST
(Reuters) - Rebels in Central African Republic took control of a strategic
town north of the capital on Saturday after soldiers defending it withdrew,
ramping up tensions ahead of planned peace talks.
The three-week-old uprising by SELEKA rebels poses the biggest threat yet to
President Francois Bozize's near ten-year rule over the former French colony
- a nation plagued by poverty and turmoil despite its rich natural
resources.
Regional neighbors agreed on Friday to send more troops to shore up CAR's
army after a string of defeats and after French President Francois Hollande
rejected a plea for military help made by embattled President Francois
Bozize.
Insurgents riding motorbikes and packed into pickup trucks streamed into
Sibut, a regional capital on a major crossroads about 190 kilometers (115
miles) north of the capital Bangui, unopposed early on Saturday, said
witnesses.
"(They) took positions at strategic points in the town, firing their guns,"
said Yvon Bema, a 27-year-old Sibut resident who fled to Bangui. "The
national army and the Chadians had left on Friday in the direction of
Bangui," he added.
The land around Sibut had been seen as a buffer between the rebels and
Bangui. Government troops there were backed by soldiers from neighboring
Chad.
CAR's minister of territorial administration, Josue Binoua, confirmed on
local radio that Sibut was occupied by rebels after troops withdrew to
Damara, about 75 km north of Bangui, where clashes had been reported on
Friday.
The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) - which already has
more than 500 peacekeepers in CAR - announced overnight a decision to send
in more troops ahead of talks planned between the rebels and the government
in early January.
"We are thinking of a way to deploy this mission as quickly as possible,"
Gabon Foreign Minister Emmanuel Issoze Ngondet told reporters after a
meeting with his regional counterparts in Gabon's capital Libreville. He did
not say how many soldiers would be deployed.
The ECCAS soldiers, mostly from Chad, are part of the MICOPAX (Mission for
the Consolidation of Peace in Central African Republic) peacekeeping force.
The SELEKA rebels have threatened to overthrow Bozize if he does not honour
a previous peace deal offering former fighters pay and jobs. They have said
they will stay out of Bangui for now to give peace talks a chance.
Officials in Bangui said on Friday rebels had agreed to send delegates to
Libreville in early January, though a rebel spokesman was not immediately
available to comment.
Bozize came to power in a rebellion in 2003 and has since won two elections.
<
http://www.reuters.com/places/france> France launched air strikes against
rebels challenging him in 2006, but Paris has said it will not intervene
militarily in the current conflict.
The United States said on Thursday it had closed its embassy in Bangui and
evacuated its staff.
Central African Republic is one of a number of countries in the region where
U.S. Special Forces are helping local forces try to track down the Lord's
Resistance Army, a rebel group which has killed thousands of civilians
across four African nations.
About 1,200 French nationals live in CAR, mostly working for mining firms
and aid groups in the capital. French defense ministry sources said Paris
had sent in 150 troops to Bangui late on Friday to bolster an existing
250-strong deployment safeguarding French citizens.
French nuclear energy group Areva mines the Bakouma uranium deposit in CAR's
south - France's biggest commercial interest in its former colony.
(Additional reporting by Phal Gualbert Mezui Ndong in Libreville and
Catherin Bremer in Paris; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Andrew
Heavens)
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Received on Sat Dec 29 2012 - 17:45:54 EST
