2,300 Refugees Flee Central African Rebels for DR Congo
More than 2,300 refugees, including soldiers, have fled the Central African Republic (CAR) for the Democratic Republic of Congo, fearing a rebel advance, a Congolese official said Friday.
On Thursday, 172 men, 347 women and 1,806 children left the Central African border town of Mobay-Mbonga by boat to cross the Oubangui river for Mobay-Mbongo in DR Congo, said Willy Isekusu, local district commissioner for North Ubangi.
Mobay-Mbonga lies close to several positions held by the Seleka rebel coalition in CAR, including the gold-mining hub of Bambari.
Isekusu and a Central African trader who crossed the border both reported a brief outburst of gunfire on Thursday when Seleka forces occupied Mobay-Mbanga, in spite of a peace accord signed with the CAR government in Libreville on January 11.
The district commissioner said that people fled "rather for fear of the unknown" and took shelter with relatives and religious communities in the DR Congo.
"We have 25 men of the FACA (Central African Armed Forces) as well as their families stuck on an island," Isekusu added. "They don't want to leave but we are negotiating to enable them to come here."
A member of the Seleka coalition who has joined the Central African government under the terms of the peace accord meanwhile said Friday that rebel forces entered Mobaye on the banks of the Oubangui on Thursday, but he added that they obeyed orders to withdraw.
"There were Seleka elements who entered Mobaye (150 kilometers / 95 miles south of Bambari). Because of bad communication, they believed that we were no longer in the government. But we told them to turn back and they returned to Alindao," General Mohamed Moussa Dhaffane, the new minister of water, forestry, hunting and fishing, told Agence France Presse by telephone.
The Seleka - which means "alliance" - took up arms against President Francois Bozize's regime in December and came within striking distance of the capital Bangui, before a peace deal was negotiated under the mediation of President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo.
Seleka officials feel that they have been short-changed by Bozize, whom they accuse of failing to give them some ministerial portfolios they wanted in a national unity government and imposing his own appointees.
Bozize first took power in the deeply poor and unstable country in a 2003 military coup and was elected back into office in 2005 and 2011. Seleka's main initial demand was that he quit office.
Dhaffane said that government ministers were "at work", but added that the Seleka coalition was "waiting for a response" from Sassou Nguesso regarding their grievances.
"We turned to violence to get into the government and to work," Dhaffane said. "We can't go against the wishes of our supporters, against those of the Central African people, or those of the international community."
Source: Agence France Presse
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