Former Central African head of state François Bozizé announced Tuesday, December 15 that he accepted the invalidation of his presidential candidacy on December 27, asking the opposition to unite behind a single candidate to beat the president outgoing Faustin Archange Touadéra.

Returning to the Central African Republic in December 2019 after seven years of exile, François Bozizé appeared as the main challenger of President Faustin Archange Touadéra, elected in 2016, and who is seeking a second term in the face of dispersed opposition.

Targeted by an arrest warrant issued by the Central African justice after its fall in 2013 and placed under UN sanction in 2014, François Bozizé was excluded from the ballot by the Constitutional Court which invalidated his candidacy on December 3 on the grounds that 'he is being prosecuted for alleged crimes.

Support for anti-balaka

Since his exile, the latter was accused, in particular by the UN, of having organized a counter-insurgency led by mainly Christian and animist militias, the anti-balaka.

In 2014, the United Nations froze his assets abroad and banned him from traveling, on the grounds that he had "supported" since his exile militias guilty, according to the UN, of "war crimes and crimes. against Humanity ".

François Bozizé said on Tuesday that he had agreed to "comply without reservation with the verdict of the Constitutional Court" noting its invalidation.

"Even if we all know under what conditions he was torn off," he added in a statement, confirmed to AFP by Séverin Vélé Faimandi, spokesperson for KNK, François Bozizé's party.

François Bozizé also called on the leaders of the COD 2020, the platform bringing together the opposition parties of which he is the current president, to designate "within our coalition a single consensus candidate, chosen because of what has the most extensive electoral base and the substantial financial resources available ".

The outgoing president opposes 16 candidates 

The Central African Republic was ravaged by civil war after a coalition of predominantly Muslim armed groups, the Séléka, overthrew the regime of President François Bozizé in 2013. Clashes between Séléka and Christian militias and "anti-balaka" animists led to violence. thousands of deaths between 2013 and 2014.

Since then, the war has evolved into a low-intensity conflict, where armed groups compete for control of the country's resources, mainly livestock and minerals, while regularly perpetrating abuses against the civilian population.

The first round of presidential and legislative elections will be held on December 27 in a country two-thirds occupied by armed groups.

The outgoing Head of State Faustin Archange Touadéra is the favorite and will be opposed to 16 other candidates, including Catherine Samba-Panza, head of state of transition between 2014 and 2016, or even Martin Ziguélé and Anicet-Georges Dologuélé , both former prime ministers.

With AFP

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