Panic in Central Africa as rebels capture presidential palace

BANGUI: Rebels in the Central African Republic fighting to topple President Francois Bozize said on Sunday that they had seized the presidential palace in an assault on the capital Bangui as gun battles sent panicked residents fleeing.

Fighters in the Seleka rebel coalition advanced into the riverside capital on Saturday after the collapse of a two-month-old peace deal in the notoriously unstable and deeply poor former French colony— ignoring a call for talks to avoid a “bloodbath”.

“We have taken the presidential palace. Bozize was not there,” one of the rebel commanders on the ground, Colonel Djouma Narkoyo, told Agence France-Presse.

He said the rebels were planning to move on to the national radio station where rebel leader Michel Djotodia planned to make an address.

“Today will be decisive,” Narkoyo said. “We call on our brothers in FACA (the Central African Army) to lay down their arms.”

Bozize, who himself led a coup in the landlocked country in 2003, has not been seen since his return from South Africa on Friday and there was no statements from the government Sunday about the latest developments.

Heavy gun battles erupted at about 0700 GMT, but later the shooting became more sporadic, an AFP correspondent said.

“We head gunfire everywhere in the city center. It was chaos,” said one witness. “Everyone started running in all directions.”

Narkoyo had told AFP on Saturday the rebels were ready to meet with regional African leaders on the crisis, but refused to negotiate with Bozize.

And he warned that if Seleka—a loose alliance of three rebel movements—captured Bangui, it would set up a new government.

Bangui resident Francis Komgdo, who lives near a checkpoint that effectively marks the entrance to the capital, told AFP the rebels had passed through Saturday in vehicles and motorbikes, occasionally firing in the air.

Gunfire and explosions in Bangui on Saturday saw the streets emptied as local people fled to their homes.

The city was also plunged into darkness last night after rebels sabotaged a hydroelectric power plant in Boali, north of the capital, an official with the Enerca electricity company and residents said.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye on Saturday called on the rebels to accept talks to “avoid a bloodbath”.

Tiangaye, an opposition figure, was only appointed as part of the peace deal brokered between the government and the rebels in January, an agreement that broke down last week. AFP