Chief of South African National Defence Force, General Solly Shoke addresses the media in Pretoria yesterday. South Africa has no immediate plans to pull out its troops from the Central Africa Republic.
BANGUI, Central African Republic: Ousted Central African president Francois Bozize has fled to Cameroon, Yaounde said yesterday, after rebels seized power in a rapid weekend assault that killed 13 South African soldiers.
Rebel leader Michel Djotodia said he planned to declare himself president after his Seleka coalition took control of Bangui in the wake of the collapse of a two-month-old peace deal with Bozize’s regime.
Following initial mystery over Bozize’s whereabouts, the president’s office in Yaounde announced in a radio broadcast that he had “sought refuge in Cameroon” and was “awaiting his departure to another host country”.
Meanwhile, South Africa said 13 of its soldiers were killed and 27 wounded in the weekend fighting in Bangui — the country’s heaviest military loss since the end of the apartheid era.
“As a member of the African Union, South Africa rejects any efforts to seize power by force,” President Jacob Zuma told reporters, adding that there were no immediate plans to withdraw troops deployed alongside the weak national army.
South Africa deployed 200 soldiers to the Central African Republic in January to support government troops.
The African Union took swift action amid international concern about the deteriorating security situation in the deeply unstable former French colony, a poor and landlocked nation with unexploited mineral wealth. AFP
