The former president of the Central African Republic François Bozizé, today at the head of the main rebel coalition, was sentenced to forced labor for life in Bangui in particular for “conspiracy” and “rebellion”, six months after being in exile from Chad to Guinea-Bissau. Mr. Bozizé, who seized power in 2003 through a coup d’état before being overthrown ten years later by rebels, was sentenced Thursday, September 21 to this sentence in absentia like two of his sons and twenty other co-defendants, including prominent rebel leaders.
They were all also condemned for “undermining the internal security of the State” and “assassinations”, according to the judgment read by Joachim Pessire, first president of the Bangui Court of Appeal who judges at first instance for criminal cases . The judgment does not specify the crimes or the period concerned.
Mr. Bozizé, 76, a refugee in Chad until March 2023, when he went into exile in Guinea-Bissau, is the coordinator of the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), the main Central African rebel coalition formed in December 2020 and who is pursuing a guerrilla war in the north of the country. Ali Darassa, fugitive military leader of the Unity for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC), the main component of the CPC, is among those sentenced.
Civil war has been tearing apart the Central African Republic, one of the poorest countries in the world, since 2013 when a coalition of armed groups dominated by Muslims, the Séléka, overthrew Mr. Bozizé, who then organized and armed so-called anti-balaka militias. , mainly Christians and animists, to try to regain power.
Crimes against humanity
Thousands of civilians were massacred at the height of the war in 2016 and the UN accused the Seleka and anti-balaka of crimes against humanity, despite the presence of a large peacekeeping force of blue helmet. The conflict, extremely deadly in the first years, has considerably decreased in intensity since 2018.
In December 2020, President Faustin Archange Touadéra called on Moscow to help counter a CPC offensive. Russia sent hundreds of paramilitaries from the private company Wagner, in addition to hundreds of others present since 2018, who largely contributed to repelling the rebels.
But the UN and Western capitals accuse the Central African army and Wagner – like the rebels – of committing crimes against civilians, and Mr. Touadéra’s power to pay paramilitaries and Russian companies with the country’s mineral resources, notably gold and diamonds.
After several putsch attempts, François Bozizé managed to seize power by force in 2003 by ousting President Ange-Félix Patassé. His regime, undermined by civil war and corruption, has never kept its promises, with insecurity preventing any economic takeoff.
General Bozizé, former army chief of staff, attempted a comeback, this time through the ballot box, in 2020 by running in the presidential election, but his candidacy was invalidated by the Constitutional Court on the grounds that he was being prosecuted for alleged crimes.
Elected in 2016, Mr. Touadéra was re-elected in 2020 in a highly contested election in which two out of three registered voters were unable to take part due in particular to the violence. At the end of July, a new Constitution was passed by referendum with more than 95%. This modification of the fundamental law should allow President Touadéra, 66, to run for a third term in 2025.
