BANGUI: Rebels in the Central African Republic, defying regional mediation efforts, yesterday seized a new town in their advance on the capital Bangui and repelled a bid by army soldiers to retake a key central city.
The rebels faced no resistance as they entered the town of Sibut some 150km from Bangui, a military source said.
Also, officials on both sides said the rebels of the so-called Seleka coalition had repelled army soldiers who were trying to recapture Bambari, a former military stronghold in the landlocked country, one of the world’s poorest despite vast mineral wealth.
A military official described “extremely violent” fighting over the town, with detonations and heavy weapons fire audible to witnesses some 60 kilometres away.
Djouma Narkoya, a Seleka leader, claimed that the army suffered “losses”, while the rebel side had “one killed and three injured” in the fighting.
The rebels, who launched their offensive in early December, now control four main towns, mainly in the north and centre of the country, including the garrison town and key diamond mining hub of Biraosince.
Bangui is in the southwest. Meanwhile regional efforts to mediate a peaceful solution in the landlocked equatorial country were at a standstill.
A day after announcing that the rebels and the government had agreed to hold unconditional peace talks and that more regional troops would head to the country, the Economic Community of Central African States said no dates had been set for either measure.
The bloc’s foreign ministers will meet again next Thursday “and that is when they will announce a date for the meeting in (the Gabonese capital) Libreville,” ECCAS’s communications director Placide Ibouanga said, referring to talks between rebels and the government.
He said the arrival of more regional troops was also uncertain. “The arrival date of the new contingent depends on the heads of state,” he said, referring to troops that are due to reinforce the 500-strong Multinational Force of Central Africa, which ECCAS deployed in the chronically unstable country in 2002. AFP
