Nine dead in rebel attack in CAR but toll could rise
At least nine people died today in an attack by the rebel group Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) on a gold mine in the Central African Republic (CAR), controlled by a Chinese company, Efe news agency reported.
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"At this moment, the population is in shock and the information is coming in little by little. We condemn this hateful act" by this rebel group linked to former President François Bozizé, Auguste Boukanga, the deputy of the Yaloké-Bossembele sub-prefecture (where the incident occurred), assured Efe.
Because there is still little information, Boukanga admits that the number of dead could increase in the coming days.
"The rebels attacked at dawn, but they encountered resistance from the Central African Army," reported a leader of the region's civil society, Junior Kango.
The same source added that "there were also many wounded who were transferred to the cities of Gaga and Yaloké to receive medical care," but that these hospitals are saturated and some patients will be transferred to Bangui, the country's capital.
The chief doctor of the Yaloké hospital, Henri Bengué, confirmed the arrival of many wounded.
Former President Bozizé, who presided over the CAR between 2003 and 2013, founded the CPC rebel alliance in December 2020 with the aim of preventing a presidential election in which he could not participate, after the Central African authorities invalidated his candidacy.
The rebels of the alliance reached the gates of Bangui in January 2021, but the army managed to drive them away with the cooperation of the troops of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (Minusca).
This military defeat forced Bozizé to flee into exile, first to neighboring Chad and then to Guinea-Bissau.
The Central African justice system sentenced Bozizé to life imprisonment with hard labor and issued an international arrest warrant against him for crimes against humanity.
The CAR has suffered waves of systemic violence since the end of 2012, when a coalition of mostly Muslim rebel groups -- the Séléka -- took the capital and overthrew Bozizé, starting a civil war.
As resistance to the Séléka attacks, anti-Balaka Christian militias were formed which, like the first group, ended up divided into several armed factions.
Two-thirds of the country, rich in diamonds, uranium and gold, are still controlled by militias and, according to the UN, nearly 500,000 people are internally displaced.
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