International Crisis Group

Uganda Suspends Its Hunt for Warlord | The Wall Street Journal

By Nicholas Bariyo and Alexis Flynn

Ugandan troops suspended their search for fugitive warlord Joseph Kony in the jungles of the Central African Republic, the Ugandan military said Wednesday, fueling fears that the country could descend into deeper disorder following the rebel overthrow of its government last month.

Uganda’s military ordered army units hunting for Mr. Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, to return to their main bases in the eastern part of the Central African Republic. That decision follows a directive issued last week by their host’s self-proclaimed president, Michel Djotodia, that called on foreign troops to leave the country.

Later Wednesday, the U.S. added Mr. Kony’s name to a list of wanted war criminals, offering up a bounty of $5 million for information leading to his capture.

The Ugandan pulback deals a blow to a U.S.-supported mission of African troops to hunt down Mr. Kony. More broadly, it feeds into gathering worries that the mineral-rich but poor country is at risk of becoming ungovernable and vulnerable to drug traffickers, criminal groups or terrorist organizations that could threaten security well beyond its borders—a fate similar to one that has befallen Somalia and Mali.

FULL ARTICLE (The Wall Street Journal)

Photo: Flickr/Peter Reid

Central African Republic: Failure Has Many Fathers - the Coup in the Central African Republic | Think Africa Press via All Africa

By Thierry Vircoulon 

On Sunday, 24 March 2013, the Seleka rebel alliance in Central African Republic (CAR) took the capital Bangui. President François Bozizé fled to Cameroon. A number of South African troops in Bangui were killed in a fight with the rebels.

Seleka leaders now claim to be in control of the government. One of its leaders, Michel Djotodia, reportedly declared himself president and said he would remain in that role for three years. The African Union imposed sanctions on the coup leaders and urged others to do the same.

The Seleka - which means alliance in the national language, Sango - is a coalition of several armed groups such as the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR), the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP) and the Wa Kodro Salute Patriotic Convention (CPSK), joined by fighters coming from Chad and Darfur.

FULL ARTICLE (Think Africa Press via All Africa)

Photo: Wikimedia Commons/hdptcar

Centrafrique: le chaos prévisible | La Presse

Par Judith Lachappelle

Hier, c’était toujours le chaos à Bangui. Selon l’Agence France-Presse (AFP), les habitants étaient terrés chez eux et les vivres commençaient à manquer. «Il y a un nombre important de blessés et de morts», a déclaré à l’AFP un représentant de la Croix-Rouge.

Ces scènes de pillage ont été dénoncées hier, notamment par Paris et Washington, qui ont réclamé des explications à la coalition armée Séléka et à son chef, Michel Djotodia.

«La responsabilité du retour au bon ordre et à la sécurité repose sur les épaules de Djotodia», explique Thierry Vircoulon, de l’International Crisis Group, joint hier à Nairobi, au Kenya. «Ça sera un vrai test de crédibilité pour lui de rétablir la sécurité dans Bangui. Ça sera aussi un test de la cohésion de la Séléka.»

ARTICLE COMPLET (La Presse)

Photo: DFID/Flickr

CAR Rebels Plan Power-Sharing Government | Voice of America

By Gabe Joselow

Thierry Vircoulon, Central Africa director for the International Crisis Group, says the so-called Libreville agreement may be key to stabilizing the country.

“The Libreville agreement at this stage is the only political basis to set up a new government. So the fact that he is saying he wants to respect the framework of the Libreville agreement is definitely something positive,” said Vircoulon.

Seleka, a coalition of five rebel groups, launched its initial offensive in December, but stopped short of the capital.  They resumed hostilities last week after accusing President Bozize of breaking the agreement signed in January by not reintegrating the rebels into the military.

FULL ARTICLE (Voice of America)

Photo: hdptcar/Flickr

Rebels capture Central African Republic: Now can they govern it? | Christian Science Monitor

By Max Delany

“The January peace deal was contested from the beginning by some Seleka factions and, in the recent weeks, they voiced their discontent so loud that they managed to persuade the political leadership of the movement to get back to their December goal: taking power,” says Thierry Vircoulon, project director for central Africa at International Crisis Group, an international NGO based in Belgium.

“This clearly demonstrates where the real power is within Seleka: The military commanders dominate the political leadership,” he says. “This is a source of concern as the Seleka does not seem to have a political program or even the first page of a political program.” 

International reaction, meanwhile, ranged from cool to condemnatory.

FULL ARTICLE (Christian Science Monitor)

Photo: fieldreports/Flickr

Kony hunt still on after CAR coup | ReliefWeb

Uganda has some 2,500 soldiers deployed around the border areas of CAR, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan, where Kony and his fighters are thought to spend most of their time. The Ugandan troops are joined by 500 Congolese fighters, 500 South Sudanese and 350 CAR troops, all operating under the auspices of the AU. In late 2011, the US deployed 100 special forces to the region as military advisers to the effort.

According to Thierry Vircoulon, Central Africa project director for the think tank International Crisis Group (ICG), “the fall of Bozizé will not change much the situation on the ground, except if the Séléka leaders insist on the departure of the foreign troops as stipulated in the Libreville agreement [a peace agreement brokered in January and breached by the latest fighting? but never successfully implemented].”

FULL ARTICLE (ReliefWeb)

Photo: hdptcar/Flickr

Failure Has Many Fathers: The Coup in Central African Republic

from Crisis Group’s blog, The African Peacebuilding Agenda

by Thierry Vircoulon, Central Africa Project Director

On Sunday, 24 March 2013, the Seleka rebel alliance in Central African Republic (CAR) took the capital, Bangui. President Francois Bozizé fled to Cameroon. A number of South African troops in Bangui were killed in a fight with the rebels. Seleka leaders now claim to be in control of the government. One of its leaders, Michel Djotodia, reportedly declared himself president and stated he would remain in that role for three years. The African Union imposed sanctions on the coup leaders and urged others to do the same.

Q: What is Seleka?

The Seleka – which means alliance in the national language, Sango – is a coalition of several armed groups such as the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR), the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP) and the Wa Kodro Salute Patriotic Convention (CPSK), joined by fighters coming from Chad and Darfur. This coalition came from the northeast of the Central African Republic and reached the doorstep of the capital city, Bangui, at the end of December 2012.1

The emergence of the Seleka coalition results from the absence of solution to the problem of the armed groups of northeastern CAR; the lack of a program of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) for these fighters; and a crippled security system. The leaders, the components and the initial demands of the Seleka have been features of the Central African political and security landscape for a long time. For instance, the disarmament of the fighters has been planned since the agreements of Libreville in 2008, but it has never taken place due to the lack of political will of the Bozizé regime. The rebels of the Seleka mainly come from the northeast of the country. This region is geographically isolated, historically marginalized and almost stateless. The lack of governance in the Vakaga and Haute Kotto regions, the permeable borders and the widespread contraband of weapons and other goods constituted the perfect terrain for the development of armed groups, giving rise to the Seleka.

FULL POST (Crisis Group)

Looters, gunmen roam Central African Republic capital after coup | Reuters

By Ange Aboa

Looters and gunmen roamed the streets of Central African Republic’s capital Bangui on Tuesday as rebels and regional peacekeepers struggled to restore order two days after a coup plunged the mineral-rich country into chaos.

The ousting of President Francois Bozize and the political turmoil around it has raised fears of a humanitarian crisis in the former French colony - and embarrassed regional power South Africa which had sent troops to defend the government.

About 5,000 Seleka rebel fighters poured into the capital on Sunday, brushing aside a 400-strong South African force which attempted to block their path. At least 13 South African soldiers were killed and 27 wounded.

FULL ARTICLE (Reuters)

Photo: Wikimedia Commons/hdptca

Looking for answers after CAR coup d’etat | Al Jazeera

By Tendai Marima

Harare, Zimbabwe - Days after the sudden fall of the Central African Republic to Séléka rebels, questions are being raised about the circumstances surrounding the hasty departure of President Francois Bozizé.

Explosions could be heard late on Saturday as government forces clashed with the Séléka fighters, who had taken control of a power station in the north and cut the supply during the final battle for control of the country.

Bozizé’s administration gave assurances that everything was under control, but by the following morning, the president had fled, leaving the Séléka - a northern-based rebel coalition - in control of the presidential palace, and much of the rest of the country.  

FULL ARTICLE (Al Jazeera)

Photo: hdptcar/Flickr

DR Congo rebel transfer won’t bring peace | Agence France-Presse via Global Post

The transfer to the International Criminal Court of warlord Bosco Ntaganda would be a blow against impunity but will not fundamentally change the situation in eastern DR Congo, analysts say.

Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been in a state of chronic unrest for almost two decades, beset either by war and insurgencies.

“Ntaganda is the symbol of impunity in the region,” said Thierry Vircoulon, Central Africa project director at International Crisis Group (ICG).

FULL ARTICLE (Agence France-Presse via Global Post)

Photo: Oxfam International/Flickr