Incumbent President Faustin Touadéra announced on Saturday his candidacy in the upcoming December elections, following former Central African Republic (CAR) leader François Bozizé and his own intentions to return to the presidency – an expected development but one that raises tensions in the long-volatile CAR. “It is a heavy responsibility,”…
There’s been renewed concern over violence in the Central African Republic of late, and now the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the region says the situation is worse following recent attacks in the northeastern town of Birao. Armed attacks at the weekend, which came two weeks after the fighting on…
It’s been a year since Russian journalists Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguyev and Orkhan Dzhemal were killed in the Central African Republic (CAR) while working on an investigative project for Russian exile and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The three seasoned journalists were launching a probe into the activities of alleged Russian…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
An elusive peace deal between the Central African Republic and armed rebel groups operating there has finally been reached, according to the African Union (AU) and MINUSCA, the United Nations mission in CAR. Smail Chergui, the AU commissioner for peace and security, announced the deal on Saturday following days of…
Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona of the Central African Republic was transferred Wednesday to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the The Hague by the government of France. He was arrested in France in December, following an ICC warrant for the suspected war criminal. Ngaïssona, 51, is an African football executive and the…
Authorities in Russia insist the deaths of three investigative journalists in the Central African Republic happened because the Investigation Management Center they were working for failed to provide them with adequate security – a claim that counters a newly released report that ties Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin and the private…
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday said he stood in solidarity with the Central African Republic (CAR), as violence against civilians and UN peacekeepers again increases. His statement follows an attack Thursday on an IDP camp in the town of Alindao that left at least 37 people dead. That attack was…
The Central African Republic is making arrangements for Russian investigators to access the site where three Russian journalists were killed on July 30, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow. TASS reports that Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, speaking during a regular weekly briefing Thursday, said Moscow has…
In Moscow, there was an outpouring of support at the Central House of Journalists following the news that three Russian journalists – Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguyev, and Orkhan Dzhemal – were killed in an ambush near the Central African Republic town of Sibut. Vyacheslav Umanovsky, head of the Russian journalists union, said one…
Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), said the nation remains under threat and requires the continued support of the UN Security Council in order to assist the CAR in restoring government authority, and meet humanitarian needs. Nearly one in four Central…
Another attack on aid workers and facilities in the Central African Republic has prompted outrage from the country’s United Nations humanitarian coordinator, who demanded that the armed groups responsible be held accountable for the consequences of violating international humanitarian law. The statement from Najat Rochdi followed an intrusion at the…
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres will wrap up his visit to Central African Republic on Friday after meetings this week with President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, African Union ambassadors and other key stakeholders. In Bangui, the UN chief highlighted four linked components – security, state-building, national reconciliation and development – he…
Roman Catholic priests surrounded by violence in the rapidly deteriorating Central African Republic have taken to social media to appeal for help, and in the process accused United Nations peacekeepers of abandoning them. “You were warned, but you deliberately decided to abandon this town,” wrote Father Jean-Alain Zembi a priest…
The United Nations (UN) envoy for the Central Africa region warned the UN Security Council on Tuesday not to underestimate the continued threat of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), particularly as troop withdrawals create space for potential further instability. François Loucény Fall, the Special Representative and head of the UN…
Renewed fighting in May between rebel forces in the Central African Republic (CAR) has forced another 88,000 people from their homes, the United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday. The growing number of refugees includes more than 20,000 people who have fled into the Democratic Republic of Congo, many of them…