France invaded the Central African Republic

[88m3]

CAR rebels claim to have entered capital


Central African Republic rebels entered the capital of Bangui on Saturday, according to a rebel spokesman. A senior official with a regional peacekeeping force said rebels were fighting government troops inside the city.
By News Wires (text)

Central African Republic rebels have entered the northern suburbs of the capital Bangui where they are fighting running battles with government troops, a Reuters eye-witness on the ground reported.

BANGUI RESIDENTS PANIC AFTER REBELS ADVANCE

By FRANCE 24
Nelson Ndjadder, a spokesman for the Seleka rebel group, confirmed that his fighters had entered the capital. He also said they had shot down a government military helicopter which had been attacking their forces since Friday.

A senior official with a regional peacekeeping force, who asked not to be identified, also said rebels were fighting government troops inside Bangui and had shot down the attack helicopter.

CAR rebels claim to have entered capital - CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - FRANCE 24

France is getting it in

 

[newarkhiphop]

France bus they guns

 

[the mechanic]

This wont end well

 

[cheek100]

 

[newworldafro]

So anybody know what the rebels are fighting for in CAR? never even heard they was beefing like that in the C.A.R.??

 

[the mechanic]

Hold up..where does it say the french are attacking? They probably pulling some strings but i cant find any report they have troops on the ground.

 

[Captain Crunch]

 

[88m3]

Hold up..where does it say the french are attacking? They probably pulling some strings but i cant find any report they have troops on the ground.

The story is breaking

 

[The War Report]

This wont end well

The Legion.

 

[the mechanic]

The Legion.

Contains more foreign talent than their national soccer team

Spoiler

ok i admit the legion is good....but thats it

 

[mbewane]

Aight brehs what is it with you guys and France? Since we're talking about the CAR (my country), fyi France has not much to do with this current wave of rebels, which is mostly backed by Tchad and contains elements coming from Sudan, Angola and random mercenaries, as well obviously as Centralafrican opposition rebel forces. The "most" France has done here is not intervene to protect Bozizé (as opposed to what they did as recently as 2011), he basically lost all his allies.

Let's just take 5 minutes and try to stop accusing ex-colonists for everything that is going wrong in African countries, especially since I'm willing to bet that most of y'all don't know anything about CAR. Believe me, we're more than capable to fukk ourselves up on our own

 

[88m3]

French troops kill two Indians in Central African Republic; President Francois Hollande expresses regret
PTI | Mar 26, 2013, 01.41 AM IST

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READ MORE Francois Hollande|Manmohan Singh|Central African Republic|2 Indians Killed

French President Francois Hollande has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressing regret over the killing of two Indians by the French troops in Central African Republic.
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DURBAN: Two Indians were killed and six others seriously injured on Monday by French troops in the Central African Republic, as the strife-torn country was overrun by a rebel group.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh received a letter here from French President Francois Hollande expressing regret for the tragic incident.

Two Indian nationals were killed and six others seriously injured by French troops at Bangui Airport in the Central African Republic on Monday morning, the letter said.

French troops, were guarding the airport, when the incident took place.

Bangui, Central African Republic, has been overrun by a rebel group in the ongoing civil war in the country.

While conveying his condolences, President Hollande assured Prime Minister of his firm determination to investigate the tragic event and assured that the injured were under the care of French medical teams.

Prime Minister expressed his deep distress at the loss of innocent lives. He has directed that all efforts be made to ensure the safety of approximately 100 Indian nationals in the Central African Republic, mainly in and around Bangui.

The Indian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, who is concurrently accredited to the Central African Republic is making necessary arrangements for the return of the mortal remains of the Indian nationals in accordance with the desires of their next of kin.

Singh arrived in South Africa on Monday on a four-day visit to attend the BRICS Summit here that could launch a development bank for the five-nation grouping.

The Prime Minister is leading a high-level delegation including finance minister P Chidambaram, commerce minister Anand Sharma and National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon.

French troops kill two Indians in Central African Republic; President Francois Hollande expresses regret - The Times of India

@zerozero the french and italians sure are giving your countrymen the work lately

 

[88m3]

Opinion

France is just fed-up, exhausted by CAR'


After sweeping through the country’s northern towns, a rebel alliance in the Central African Republic (CAR) seized power in the capital of Bangui on Sunday. Africa expert Roland Marchal provides context to the latest developments.
By FRANCE 24 (video)
FRANCE 24 (text)

Rebel fighters from a loose alliance of rebel groups called Seleka seized the presidential palace in the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR) early Sunday. CAR President François Bozizé had vacated the palace before the rebels advanced in an early morning onslaught into the heart of the capital of Bangui. His whereabouts were not immediately known, although he is believed to have fled the city.

An impoverished and landlocked nation, CAR remains among the world’s least developed countries, despite rich deposits of gold, diamonds and uranium. Sunday’s power grab was the latest in a series of rebel incursions, clashes and coups that have plagued this nation in the heart of Africa since its independence from France in 1960.

Roland Marchal, a senior research fellow at the National Centre for Scientific Research, based at Sciences-Po in Paris, spoke to FRANCE 24’s Louise Hannah about the roots of the latest crisis.

FRANCE 24: Who are the Seleka rebels and why did they rise up against Central African President François Bozizé?

Roland Marchal: The Seleka is an alliance of different groups basically rooted in the north of the country, where people have claimed for years that the state should have invested more in the region. So, they’re not against the state. They’d like the state to spend more in the north, to spend more on the people. That hasn’t been the case. This is the core of their grievances.

Beyond that, you have a number of people who have been part of other armed groups who believe that joining Seleka may be a way to build the future for them because there will be a DDR [Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration] and they may join the army eventually.

You have to take into account the regional stance – a number of states in the region are so unsatisfied with François Bozizé that they would support any group willing to get rid of him.

FRANCE 24: CAR has hundreds of peacekeepers from the Central African regional bloc, but they did not appear to put up a serious resistance to the rebel onslaught into the capital….

Roland Marchal: François Bozizé came to power in 2003 by what I would call “a regional coup”, which means the heads of state of the region decided the previous president, Ange-Félix Patassé, wasn’t doing the job properly: he had an alliance with Libya, he was entertaining a number of armed groups that were fighting in the region, so they decided he had to go.

I think the same situation prevails today. Chad’s [President] Idriss Deby feels Bozizé fails to pacify the northern part of the country, which has an impact on southern Chad. They feel as well that Bozizé is sometimes playing a dirty game with the Chadian community, which is quite numerous in CAR. This is not acceptable [for Chad]. In addition, there are a number of technical though important regional issues.

So, people want him to go. I think they pushed him to change, to reform. It failed and that’s why Seleka basically got the support - or green light - at different moments, and at the end, the regional troops actually just let them enter Bangui.

FRANCE 24: Does France, as a former colonial power, have a responsibility to help secure the country?

Roland Marchal: To say it in a very un-diplomatic way, France is just fed-up, exhausted by CAR because there is no structural or significant strategic interest there, but CAR all the time requires attention because of their adventurous way of managing the country.

France feels that this time it should just let the regional organisation – which is Chad and Congo Brazzaville – lead the mediation and get a solution for the country.

It’s not very ambitious and of course I would have preferred if France could have got more engaged, to propose a kind of coalition or alliance that would have popular support in CAR and maybe keep the violence at bay. It’s not going to happen now. The battle is in Bangui and I hope that the new regime, if it provides democratic credentials, would be supported strongly by France.

'France is just fed-up, exhausted by CAR' - CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - FRANCE 24

 

[mbewane]

Opinion


'France is just fed-up, exhausted by CAR' - CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - FRANCE 24

France, as well as other allies in the region: the DRC refused to host ex-President Bozizé, Cameroun is looking for another country to send him to, Congo and Gabon did not budge. Bozizé managed to alleniate all of his allies these past years, that's why he asked for South African soldiers to protect him. The role of SA must not be diminished: they already have mining interests in the country and basically did what France used to do in CAR: come in exclusively to protect the falling regime in order to protect their interests.

And then, of course, we have Chad, who is never far when talking about CAR. They too, after backing Bozizé's own coup, stopped supporting him after he decided to send back home Chadian troops (who were in charge of his personnal security). Plsu he was starting to anti-Chadian (and anti-Muslim) rethoric. In what was a surprise to no Centralafrican, that's when the first big attacks of Séléka happened.

If you guys want to make this about France, the most one can say is that they let the Chad-backed Séléka coalition storm through the country. Chad being their number one ally in Mali, there's not much they could do.