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C.Africa peace deal under strain as militia quits
BANGUI, Central African Republic, March 4, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Less than a
month after it was signed, the Central African Republic’s peace agreement was
under strain on Monday after a militia group abandoned the deal and a second
said it was quitting a new government designed to be the keystone of the
accord.
The Democratic Front of the Central African People (FPDC), one of 14 armed
groups that inked the so-called Khartoum Agreement, announced it was walking
away in protest at a newly formed government.
The FPDC “is resolved purely and simply to withdraw from the peace
process,” it said in a statement sent to AFP. The group, whose stronghold is
in the northwest, protested that the new government formed on Sunday was “far
from being inclusive”.
Just hours after the ministerial list was unveiled, the Popular Front for
the Renaissance of the Central African Republic (FPRC), said it was leaving
the government.
The FPRC did not specify whether it planned to remain part of the peace
process, but charged the authorities with “bad faith, amateurism and
incompetence.”
The peace agreement was forged after negotiations in the Sudanese capital
of Khartoum before being signed in Bangui on February 6.
The deal brings together President Faustin-Archange Touadera and the
leaders of the 14 armed groups who control most of the CAR.
It is the eighth attempt to bring peace to the CAR, one of the world’s
poorest and most unstable countries, since mainly Muslim rebels ousted
president Francois Bozize, a Christian, in 2013.
France, the former colonial ruler, intervened militarily under a UN mandate
as fears grew of a Rwandan-style genocide.
The Seleka were forced from power and in February 2016, Touadera, a former
prime minister, was elected president.
– Anger –
Under peace accord’s provisions, Touadera agreed to form an “inclusive”
government.
But in the team unveiled on Sunday, the ministers in sensitive key posts
all kept their jobs, while six of the 14 armed groups obtained no post at
all.
One of those left out, the Movement of Central African Freedom Fighters for
Justice (MLCJ), a small group in the north of the country, warned the
authorities “to look again” at the list.
The armed groups had also demanded that prime minister be chosen from their
ranks.
But the job was handed to Firmin Ngrebada, Touadera’s former cabinet
director.
“By playing at ‘Let’s take the same people and start over’, the president
of the republic … has stifled all hope at birth,” the FPRC said.
The deal was prepared in 2017 by the African Union and has the support of
Bangui’s partners, notably former colonial power France, along with a 12,000-
strong UN stabilisation mission, MINUSCA.
But militia groups, often claiming to defend an ethnicity or religious
group, still hold sway over four-fifths of the country.
Fighting, typically for control of natural resources, has left thousands
dead and forced a quarter of the population of 4.5 million from their homes.
Other provisions in the agreement include the launch of a “Truth, Justice,
Reparation and Reconciliation Commission” within 90 days and the start of
joint patrols by militia members and the security forces.
The agreement does not spell out any amnesty for militia leaders —
something that had been a stumbling block in past agreements. However, the
president may exercise a “discretionary right to issue pardons”.
BSS/AFP/RY/1918 hrs