RCA | Former Militiaman Detained Accused Of “War Crimes”
RCA | Former Militiaman Detained Accused Of “War Crimes”
Seleka spokesman and military chief rebel, Colonel Christian Djouma Narkoyo, poses on January 18, 2013 in Grimari north of Damara, 75 kms from the capital Bangui. Opposition lawyer Nicolas Tiangaye was on January 17 officially appointed prime minister of the Central African Republic's new national unity government, President Francois Bozize said after a ceremony in the capital Bangui. The announcement came in line with a peace deal struck between the ruling party, the Seleka rebels and opposition on January 13. AFP PHOTO / PATRICK FORT (Photo by PATRICK FORT / AFP)
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A former member of a militia accused of “war crimes” in the Central African Republic (CAR), which has been ravaged by civil war for several years, has been arrested near the border with Cameroon, the prosecutor told AFP on Tuesday. general of Bangkok.
Bangui, RCA | Colonel Christian Djouma Narkoyo “was arrested this weekend while trying to cross the border in Béloko”, about 580 kilometers northwest of the capital Bangui, said Eric Didier Tambo, specifying that the man was wanted for “war crimes”. and “criminal association”.
“A court case has been opened and he will be tried according to the law,” he added.
Djouma Narkoyo was the spokesman for the Séléka coalition of mostly Muslim armed groups, which overthrew former President François Bozizé in 2013, plunging the Central African Republic, one of the least developed countries in the world according to the UN, into civil war. Once the Séléka came to power, Djouma Narkoyo led a mobile police section.
The fighting that followed Bozizé’s fall between the Séléka coalition and militias backed by the deposed Christian and animist-dominated anti-Balaka head of state peaked from 2014 to 2015.
Séléka and the anti-Balaka have plunged the country into a bloody civil war and were accused in 2015 by the UN of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” during the years 2014 and 2015, at the height of the conflict.
This conflict continues, but has considerably diminished in intensity in the last four years. Portugal currently has 193 soldiers at MINUSCA, the United Nations mission in CAR, of which 180 are part of the Quick Reaction Force (QRF) and the rest at the headquarters, he told Lusa on April the second-in-command of MINUSCA, General Paulo Maia Pereira.
In total, MINUSCA comprises 14,000 women and men from 48 countries, and “each contingent is called upon, based on the mobilization it manages to do in each country, to bring to the Central African Republic actions that are combined with the humanitarian work of the mission”, then explained Maia Pereira.
In addition to the soldiers integrated in the United Nations mission, Portugal has another 26 soldiers in CAR, within the scope of the European Union mission (EUTM-RCA) for training and advising security and defense forces.
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